


Brillig

by Fionnalina



Category: The Long Walk - Richard Bachman
Genre: Alice In Wonderland AU, I just love Gavries and Alice in Wonderland so much, I ran out of characthers to assign roles to at some point, I think everybody is on this fic actually, M/M, also i cant believe a wonderland au fic doesnt already exist or that i didnt read it for that matter, i dont even really know what this is
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-27
Updated: 2020-09-27
Packaged: 2021-03-07 20:47:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 21,010
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26663917
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Fionnalina/pseuds/Fionnalina
Summary: Garraty closed his eyes for a second, and when he opened them again, he was in a whole new place.
Relationships: Ray Garraty/Peter McVries
Kudos: 4





	Brillig

Ray Garraty took hold of his little tea table with both hands and calmly walked himself to his garden.

He sat below one of the tree's shades, placed the tray gently beside him, sitting with both legs splayed before him, he took one sip off his white and blue teacup, he held it tighter than he had to, holding onto the bright yellow haft like something depended on it.

He closed his eyes for a second, and when he opened them again, he was in a whole new place. 

* * *

Garraty’s eyes opened gradually and without hurry, nonchalantly the darkness behind his eyelids disappeared.

He saw absolutely nothing familiar, when he finally, fully opened his eyes.

“Wha-?” He gave himself three seconds to react, then shot to his feet “What!?” 

He looked behind him, the tree was the same, nothing else was the same.

“Uh!?” He was surrounded by a wild and grand forest, the trees escalating far greater than he ever thought should be possible, and he had grown on the forest, the trees were a burning green, and deep blue and Garraty thought maybe he had suffered brain damage.

He felt his pulse quicken, he was getting dizzy, the trees were big enough to devour him.

And suddenly <<Oh Dear! Oh, Dear! I shall be too late!>>

He looked to the right and saw him pass, far enough to not be reached and.

“I'm late! I'm late, I'm late!” 

“Am I dreaming?” He asked, to nobody in particular.

He saw pass a White Rabbit who wasn't anywhere near close enough for him to see, and yet he saw, he saw a squalid pale blonde boy, with huge, pure white, bouncing rabbit ears.

He looked at The White Rabbit, or guy, he wasn't very sure, run faster and faster, far away from view, he focussed on his blushed face, he seemed to be a few seconds before fainting out form the strain, Garraty didn't feel such a huge need to chase after him until The Rabbit got his clock out. 

“Yeah okay, I'm dreaming” Garraty’s head pulsated and at that moment Garraty came to full terms with his situation. He was calm again, feeling cold, and like his head was about to explode.

He saw The White Rabbit reach inside his red tattered coat, and pull out a golden hand clock, he saw it, again and again, the same way Garraty had stared at his own clock, before saving it and running again.

Garraty then, began running, for some reason he couldn't discern, his head hurt, when he ran it didn't, he knew he was dreaming, because rabbit boys didn't exist in real life, or blue trees, so if he felt like chasing, like running as fast as possible against that Rabbit he didn't even have to consider not doing it.

He simply ran, without really feeling his feet at first, he felt like he was suddenly there, nothing more than that, suddenly behind that boy, looking at his ears bounce up and down, hearing that worried screaming, stepping over long and shiny grass strands, running out of breath, feeling the wind hit him in the face, and yelling behind him.

“Please wait!” Garraty called out behind him, The White Rabbit didn't even turn to him, his ears twitched “Please wait!”

“I'm late! I can't wait!”

“Where are you going to!?” Garraty didn't know why he cared, but he cared so much.

“The Tea Party! Work! Everywhere!” The Rabbit shouted, his eyes still focused somewhere very far away from them.

“Where's The Tea Party!?” He supposed this is how the dream was supposed to go.

“At The Hatter Family Mansion!” The White rabbit actually turned around to tell him that, without slowing down at all though, Garraty could barely keep at his tail, The Rabbit gave him one second to gaze at his worried quavering eyes, his teeth were clinked together with all the strength in the world “I am so late!” The Rabbit screamed right at his face, then began running again. 

* * *

The White Rabbit ran far faster than Garraty ever thought possible, Garraty could only stare as he got away from his reach.

Garraty kept running, he felt like he should be panting, completely out of breath by now but no, he simply kept running, almost not feeling the ground, or his feet slamming violently against it, Garraty thought he could do this forever if he felt like it.

“So late!” The Rabbit stopped completely out of the blue, Garraty thought the speed he was going to would make him trip over at least, but no, he simply stopped, Garraty didn't but he felt like he was floating, not even running, he was sure he was still moving forward, but he couldn't tell if he was going anywhere.

The White Rabbit stopped around some bushes beside the roots of a tree, and pulled his clock out again, stomping his left foot against the ground twice, like he was waiting for an elevator.

The bushes parted, and The Rabbit left himself fall, without looking back, or giving it a second thought, he merely heard the riot of the leaves against each other and like it was his own bed, he fell down the rabbit hole.

And Garraty went right behind him.

* * *

“What do you want!?” The White Rabbit was falling a little behind him, or down to him, using both hands to cup his mouth and yell louder, his ears flapped against each other, he had both legs extended normally, like at any point he was going to get tired of falling and simply start walking.

“AAAAAHHHHH” Garraty had both legs pressed tightly against his chest, his voice didn't echo inside the rabbit hole.

“Why are you screaming so much?” The Rabbit put his hands lightly on his ears, he grimaced “You are giving me a headache.”

Garraty felt his left eye twitch, he stared at The Rabbit’s eyes, and The Rabbit stared right back at him, Garraty’s jaw was hanging open.

“Staring at people with such an open jaw, and wide eyes is rude, don't you know?”

So rabbit boys with clocks who spoke were considered people too, good to know.

“Oh yeah, that this is a dream” Garraty said out loud to himself, sounding very tired, he sighed and hanged his head, doing that while falling felt like closing your eyes on a rollercoaster.

The Rabbit tilted his head at that, his ears moving cutesy-like to the side “A dream” He repeated “Is this all a dream to you?”

“What else is it going to be?” Garraty rolled his eyes a little, the sequence was repetitive but there was no other way to work around it, an unskippable cutscene.

“Am I a dream to you too?” He rested a hand carefully on top of his chest, his eyes were focused now, Garraty felt tested, somehow.

“Are you not?”

“If I were, asking me wouldn't help.”

“There's no way this is real, it must be a dream.”

“So the possibilities here are: That you are dreaming me, or that I'm dreaming you.”

“Are you?”

“If I were, I wouldn't tell you.”

“And if you don't tell me, I'm allowed to assume you aren't.”

The Rabbit smiled, the simple faintest trail of a smile, it was an exercise in lip pulling, and Garraty felt like he passed the exam.

They lived on that small moment of pure silence, a feeble moment that could have very well not existed at all, and then there came the flying books.

The books flapped their opposite sides in front of their noses, flying away like crows in hordes, Garraty tried to step away without realizing it, and his foot touched something, he heard himself cry out loud again, he was standing on top of an old closet.

“AAAAAA!”

“It's nothing but wood” The White Rabbit pointed out, as a deck of red cars flew past his hair and besides Garraty’s ear, and a bunch of toasts with butter were flying like butterflies on top of them, they kept falling, Garraty felt like they were falling quicker now. 

A neon purple hat stacked up with colorful feathers flew past him, and almost seated down on his head, a bouquet of flowers speaking to each other, they were falling so much faster now, a mirror beside him, he caught a glimpse of his marveled face.

“We are almost down” The White Rabbit yelled up to him again, he had his pocket watch in hand, boredly looking at the hour, only one foot on the red and golden fancy couch beneath him.

“What!?” Garraty screamed.

“That we almost arrive” The Rabbit replied vexed, saved his clock back on his coat, he sighed and they touched ground.

Garraty had his eyes squeezed shut, he didn't dare open them, he didn't want to see if he had a broken leg, the thought that he could die falling down this hole had suddenly invaded him, like the awareness he was dreaming raised and fell at will, there was always the possibility he could break his bones in dreams, who knew.

“Why don't you open your eyes?” Okay, so he wasn't dead, he supposed that was good “You are taking so long as well.”

“Sorry” Garraty reached a hand up to his head, he didn't really have a headache, he really wasn't suffering of pain anywhere, he supposed that speech about not feeling pain during dreams was real.

He opened his eyes, The Rabbit was kneeling in front of him, he was really, really close, Garraty jumped back.

The Rabbit giggled “Silly” He stood up like a doll and walked forward. 

He didn't run for a second, looking before him as if he was gazing apart the threads of Garraty’s dream into something else, he looked like a beautiful statue forever frozen in time. Garraty approached him softly, mere centimeters, he didn't stand up to run and catch him, it didn't feel proper, like if he did he would break the dream.

They heard faint trumpets muffled somewhere far away, that automatically brought The Rabbit back.

The Rabbit made a perfect half-turn, standing before him, sparing him one glance through the corner of his eyes, then he ran again.

He ran right past him, his hair brushed him lightly as he went, he was so, so fast, and Gararty felt the air being knocked out of deep between his guts.

Garraty’s first instinct was to chase after him again, but he wasn't fast enough to even run by his side this time, he seemed even faster now, somehow, down here, or up here, Garraty couldn't be sure, anymore.

“Wait, wait, wait!” He reached out to him, even if everything that he could still sense of him were his footsteps.

“No time left!” The White Rabbit sounded far more serious now.

He ran, and only arrived to see an awfully small door opening itself for The White Rabbit, and then slamming itself shut again. 

Garraty’s footsteps stopped, now they seemed to be echoing, when they bounced back on him they made him feel inadequately big. 

“It’s small” He said out loud, as quietly as he could, like his voice could cause an avalanche, he felt like his head was touching the ceiling, he looked up, had there even been a ceiling here before, there was a warm brown ceiling hovering just a few centimeters before his head now.

Garraty out his hand up and touched it, he was really surprised when he truly felt it, felt the concrete solid material it was built from and its little imperfections marking themselves on his hand, he had expected it to fade away when he touched it, he thought dreams were made of the same stuff as clouds. 

But apparently, they weren't, and being so close to the ceiling was already making him claustrophobic.

Garraty stepped back, he felt silly trying to run away from the ceiling, he still felt silly, even when he successfully ran away from the ceiling and didn't feel pressed anymore after he stepped back a little.

He didn't feel so terribly tall anymore, he looked at the room up and down, this was a room now, it didn't feel fit to question it, he looked up, there was no ceiling, his hair floated up, it tickled him right above his eye, it felt as if he was standing on the ceiling, but then that would mean there was no ground, maybe there wasn't, and he was still falling, who knew.

He stood in the middle of that room, or air, velvet carmin doors around him, he felt like he could put his hand against it, and it would sink into another dimension, he walked further in.

In the middle, there was a small wooden three-legged varnished table, with a plain golden key and besides it, standing elegantly a crystal bottle with a label that read ‘DRINK ME’.

And Garraty did, because that's what people do when they are dreaming, right? Had he been younger he would have checked for a poison label on it, but who cares, anymore.

Garraty had grabbed it, popped off the crystal heart-shaped cover, and drank the tiniest bit of the rose-pink contents.

And he shrank down.

His feet stopped touching the ground for a second, then he dropped completely to the floor, he heard the bottle make a high pitched ‘Clank’ sound when it fell on top of the table. He yelped out in pain.

“I'm small now, too?” He looked up, everything seemed light years away from him now.

The bottle danced around the edge of the table for a few seconds, then with a half already on the air, the rest of the contents began pouring out, it rained on top of him like a cascade, it elevated him from his feet, and engulfed him all the way to his neck, it smelled sweet, the pink water stained his face, the current took him away by force, going full speed somewhere deeper in the room, Garrarty thought this is how the animals must have felt like during the great flooding.

He tried to swim against the current, but eventually gave up, everything was filled up with water.

“I just wanted to cross a door” Garraty said to himself. He hated the way the water made his bangs stick to his face.

“You too?” A nervous small voice called him over, he looked all around him, but didn't see anybody floating near him “Over here” The voice got closer, it was a boy with a black square pair of glasses, and mouse ears. 

“My name is Harkness” The Mouse, who's name was Harkness, now he knew, offered his hand for a friendly greeting, Garraty stared at his perfectly human-looking hand with a little twitch in his right eye.

Garraty felt rather disturbed with himself when he didn't even feel like gasping, he supposed the rabbit ears were enough to desensitize him.

The Mouse(?) looked at him, he seemed uncomfortable with eye contact “Hey?” He raised his hand and swung it back and forth in front of Garraty.

“Oh” Garraty blinked twice “Sorry. You too...-?” He didn't really know how to explain their current situation. 

“Yeah, me two” The Mouse fixed his glasses, Garraty realized they weren't stained or wet at all, “I two got caught in this storm.”

“Sto-?” Garraty caught his words, better not to tell the Mouse that he had caused ‘The Storm’ “Yeah, terrible.”

“Harrowing you should say” The Mouse said, as he swam a little closer to Garraty, he closed his eyes for a second, then made the most awful grimace on the world “You smell like a dog!”

“Oi!?” Garraty raised his hand up, throwing water at the both of them, The Mouse yelped, looking like he was trying to hide from the water inside the water.

“You smell like a dog!” The Mouse yelled, and hid a portion of his face behind his hands, Garraty realized he looked pretty scared right now, and immediately felt guilty.

“I'm sorry” He apologized, lowering his hand back beneath the water, he almost didn't realize he was being taken anymore “I didn't know Mouses hated dogs too.”

“Me, and my family, we all hate dogs, and cats the most!” He said, kicking his legs against the flow a little harder.

“Why is that?” Garraty had never considered asking mice themselves why they hated dogs, and, or cats, and it may seem like a rather obvious question to The Mouse himself but he wasn't about to pass up the opportunity to do so.

The current started going harder against them, moving them around, harshly.

The Mouse spoke louder, out of breath “If we manage to get to the shore... maybe… one day… I'll tell you all about it…”

“The Shore?” Garraty simply thought he would be drifting around forever.

“Yes, The Shore” The Mouse did his best to point to a far away place with the arms he should be trying to swim with, and there, indeed, was a shore, or at least something that resembled a shore, like a lot, Garraty hadn't seen it at all before, even though he had been swimming right to it, like it had suddenly appeared for plot convenience.

Garraty remembered all the tiresome sports classes he had been through before, and put his strength on his legs, and arms, and swam forward as fast as he could, The Mouse went right behind him. 

They swam closer to the shore, a shore that was an ebony-colored stool, but nobody was going to point that out either, and there they found, a bunch of weird guys with animal ears standing around, yelling at each other.

* * *

Garraty stared at the Gryphon, and the Mock Turtle, and chose not to question it.

“Hey, guys” Harkness ran up to them, half tripping on his feet, Garraty always hated the feeling of getting out of the water, it felt like a waste, and like everything in him was weighing him down.

“Hey” The Mock Turtle answered, the Gryphon just said Harkness’s name, and nodded. 

Harkness took off his glasses, and cleaned them as well as he could with the hem of his shirt.

“We need to get out of here, my glasses are falling apart” Harkness announced, as if he was talking to the room itself.

“What do you want us to do, hold hands, dance around, and wait for a bunch of clams to come out so we can have a scene of a tale about eating them?” The Mock Turtle asked.

“Are you referencing the book scene, or the movie scene?” Harkness replied, his glasses falling a little off his nose.

“Uhm?” Garraty raised his hand uncomfortably, he was beginning to feel like a side character on a badly written joke.

“Oh, yeah” Harkness turned to him, pushing the glasses back up with his index finger “You guys forgot to introduce yourselves.”

“Why would we need to introduce ourselves?” The Gryphon looked Garraty up and down, unimpressed, with his arms crossed, Garraty felt like this is the exact sort of guy he wouldn't want to cross, dream, or not.

“Why you so rude, Collie?” The Mock Turtle put his right arm on top of The Gryphon’s head, then began explaining “I'm sorry, this antisocial, bad-tempered, huge cat, is named Collie Parker, ironic I know” (These two concepts don't go together at all, thought Garraty) The Mock Turtle put his right hand on top of his chest “And I'm Abraham, Gryphon, and Mock Turtle respectively, but the narrator already told you that.”

“I'm Ray Garraty” Garraty waved shily.

“Hey, Ray Garraty” Abraham waved back at him.

“How does one fix something?” Harkness's voice called Garraty’s attention again, he was standing proudly in front of Parker, something about the Maus looking in most control right now, standing in front of the Gryphon, amused Garraty greatly “By reversing the mess that caused the problem to begin with.”

Garraty thought about the bottle, that was the most direct thing that had caused all of this, though maybe that wasn't exactly what Harkness meant, that was really as far as he was willing to go back today, maybe because any further wouldn't have really been himself anymore.

And then Garraty heard that sharp crystal breaking noise in reverse.

Garraty looked up, and from the sky in slow motion fell the same bottle he had broken a little earlier, was he reliving his own memories form a different perspective, or something? 

“Here it comes” Garraty said, his voice oddly leveled, like watching a thunderstorm fall in another continent, he placed both arms protectively over his head.

“Wha-?” Parker looked up, he caught a shining glimpse “Goddam!” He yelled to the skies, then they left the bottle fall.

The crystal bottle fell before them, monstrously huge now, Garraty had closed one eye, with a pained expression on his face, he had expected an awful sharp, and piercing noise as the crystal shattered and fell on top of them, but that hadn't happened at all.

The bottle had melted into a door before them, a stained glass of soft red colour, Garraty opened his other eye, he felt a little disappointed, nothing too disastrous had happened.

“Y’all a buncha scaredy cats” Parker yelled back at them, Parked hadn't stepped back nor closed his eyes at all, he had only stood there, very visibly annoyed.

“We already knew that, Parker” Abraham said, standing with his back to Parker.

“Damn right” Parker said, cracked his neck, took one step back with calm, to then bring up his fists up, and hit the red crystal door, the pieces came flying full force in all directions, Garraty brought his arm up to protect his face.

Parker and Abraham scuffed a little longer, Garraty ignored them, he focused his gaze past the new opening, there were blue roses on one side, and red on the other, he felt bad going ahead without them, but they seemed really focused on yelling at each other.

He stepped carefully on top of the shards, taking his firsts steps outside, it felt like his first time outside in his whole lifetime.

* * *

Garraty stared at the blue and red roses, he heard trumpets somewhere down south, like the noise was coming from the clouds. 

He looked behind him there was no door anymore, he felt like he had gone back to his regular height then looked around him and saw not trees but grass.

He stood dumbly around for a minute ‘Well that solved itself rather quickly’ He thought. 

He didn't know what he wanted to do anymore, was he going to be fun-sized forever? Or at least until he woke up, he didn't know. 

The smell of dew got into his nostrils, the pieces of grass arrived far higher than his head, little droplets of rain fell on top of him from time to time, he wasn't really bothered by this, he stared at the gigantic flowers growing what appeared to be miles away from him, they sounded like they were singing, Garraty didn't feel like messing with them.

“Do you never look at where you are going?” A voice stopped Garraty on his tracks.

Garraty jumped back a little, and looked up, a boy was laying on top of a grand, red and white, mushroom, reclining himself on his right elbow, looking down at Garraty with one uninspired eyebrow raised, and a big smoking pipe resting beside him. 

“Who are you?” The boy asked, pieces and bits of smoke escaping through his teeth, like it was compressed ice.

Garraty, somehow, didn't know how to answer that question, was he still the same person he had always been if he was different now, he opened up his mouth to say his name, and was interrupted.

“You are not your name” The boy said, more smoke leaving his mouth, Garraty thought he had an ashtray inside.

Garraty clenched his hands a little, he felt almost like a little kid about to throw a tantrum, people like this always managed to get on his nerves, yet he always ended up with people like this, like a magnet in his blood “Who are _you_?” He asked back.

“By your logic, I am Pearson, I'm the Caterpillar, that's all meaningless” He said, taking back the pipe and exhaling deeply afterwards, the smell of opium filling the air.

“Is it completely meaningless?”

“It is as meaningless as you can be.”

“What does that even mean?” Garraty looked to the piece of grass besides Pearson, a drop of water almost ready to fall off it.

“That if you have no meaning,l you are meaningless” He said, playing with the pipe.

“Ah… I see.”

Pearson kept looking down at him, he looked just as bothered as Garraty felt “Why does it cost you so much to answer who you are?”

Garraty thought back, he had no reason, or need to explain himself to any stranger, but he never walked away from any stranger “Maybe, because I have been changing so much since this morning” He offered.

“How have you changed?”

“I'm older now, my height, the place I was, the people I know...” He was counting with his fingers, he was going to keep going, but Pearson interrupted him.

“What's bad about your height right now?”

“Well, being three inches tall isn't exactly the best height I ever had.”

“Why not?” Pearson stood up, he was exactly three inches tall, Garraty felt a knot in his throat, he didn't know what to answer, Pearson glared him down even harder “Anyways, if your height is everything that's stopping you from answering...” He looked down to his pipe “Come here.”

Garraty walked closer to him, standing right on the very edge of his mushroom home Pearson puffed with his eyes closed, seemingly in a lot of concentration, from his pipe, held it in for five seconds, and then blew some of its smoke onto Garraty's face, Garraty felt himself grow taller again.

“Thank you!” He yelled, and ran away, didn't want to get more smoke thrown at his face, and end up disappearing, or something, he hoped he didn't step over any other caterpillars, or singing flowers on his way out though.

* * *

Garraty made sure he was far away enough, or what seemed like far away enough, before he slowed down, he looked at himself, he thought he was his normal height now.

He kept walking forward, cutting through the grass, staring at the immense field around him, looking left, and right, as if he was passing a busy street, nothing seemed different, like the background simply repeated itself every few steps.

<<Late!>> That was a voice he recognized, he felt like the world repeated itself every few steps, everything is a cycle and so, he followed the voice.

He walked closer to it, he switched paths east, he felt like he was playing a game of cold or hot with himself.

<<Why are you so annoying?>>

Garraty followed the voice, to a beautiful mansion in the middle of the forest, Garraty wondered if it would be made of sweets, he walked towards it.

Garraty walked delicately to the enormous golden gates in the middle of the forest, they seemed open, for some reason.

He got closer to them, his hand extended out, as if he was trying to touch them, all as finely as possible.

And then, he jumped back.

<<Late!>> That was a voice he recognized. 

He walked closer this time, losing the sensitivity of before, he was already crossing the line, past the gate into the private property, Garraty was somehow aware that this isn't something that he would ever do in real life, the fact that this wasn't real life helped with that though.

He passed the gates, allowing himself a second to breathe in the mansion before him.

It was still a long, long path to the doors of the mansion, but he could still see the building fine, like it was right besides him, Garraty wondered just how grand it would be up close, rose bushes surrounded the dirt paths to it, the rest was trees and grass, thankfully these trees weren't blue, Garraty would have felt too ashamed of his brain if they were.

He heard the familiar <<Late late!>> but this time a voice interrupted him <<You really can't stay to your unbirthday, after we made a sit for you, and all.>>

Garraty managed to tear his eyes away from the mansion at that, he had to chase The Rabbit, that's how this story went.

He walked on one of the dirt paths, following the voices as closely as he could.

He skirted the mansion, getting a look at the windows, and doors on the back, he couldn't make up a big difference between the front, and the back, he kept going.

“My, oh my, how rude.”

Garraty took three steps closer to the voice, and he found himself face to face with The Mad Tea Party.

* * *

Sitting at the big, offbeat table, were more people with rabbit ears, because why not, right?

Garraty stared at The White Rabbit, he was standing on the edge of the table, Garraty had caught him mid running away, again.

Garraty stared at the commenals sitting in front of him, a boy with Hare ears on the right, and one guy sitting center, with one leg on top of the other, and the tallest most absurd hat Garraty had ever seen.

The table was the largest thing he had ever seen, cluttered with all sorts of chairs, oddly decorated on every single possible space, but there didn't seem to be more invitees ‘Why are there so many guys with animal ears in this one?’ 

“Well, well, who's this?” Garraty blinked twice, he couldn't focus on where the voice had come from.

“Over here” Garraty looked around, centering his gaze to one of the back chairs, there languidly, a figure manifested itself, first a wide, fixed, and intense, pure white grin, and then the rest of the body, without hurry behind it.

Now a boy with blonde hair, and purple striped ears smiled at him, he didn't look so creepy when he was fully formed.

“He” The boy pointed at the guy, with the hat, sitting to his right “Is the one who said that.”

“Oh, Art, must you always steal my thunder?” The guy with the hat spoke, with an over the top, exaggerated hurt.

“If you don't have any reason for me to stay, I actually have duties to perform” The White Rabbit spoke up, stepping back a little from the edge, as if to get ready to jump again.

“What duties? You are already late to everything” The guy with the hat said.

“As you always are” The guy with cat ears said. 

“I'm not late” He searched for his clock inside his coat “It must be three o’clock somewhere else.”

“Weren't you screaming about it a few seconds ago?” The guy with the hat spoke.

“Shut up, McVries” So his name was McVries.

This all sounded mundane enough for Garraty to start freaking out again “Do you have a name?” Garraty asked The White Rabbit, he didn't know why that had first come into his head, but he had already said it.

“Of course I have a name” The Rabbit actually turned to look at him for that “Why do you care?” He turned back, held his leg back up to jump, and McVries grabbed it. 

“Are you really, not even going to introduce yourself, to the poor boy who's been chasing you around, all up until here all this time, Bunny?” McVries held onto Stebbins’s leg, before he could jump away.

“Don't call me that, McVries” The Rabbit tried to pull away, and didn't succeed at all.

“Fine then, I will” McVries turned to him “My name is Peter McVries, you can call me The Mad Hatter” He held tighter onto The White Rabbit’s leg “And this mannerless, unpunctual, rabbit, is called Stebbins.” 

“Nice to meet you, Stebbins” Garraty automatically extended his hand up to him, his lower abdomen touching the checkered white, and blue mantel.

Stebbins looked back and forth, between McVries, and Garraty “...Mmn?” His ears twitched a little.

“Nice to meet you” Garraty repeated, holding his hand up higher, standing a little on his tiptoes, as if Stebbins had somehow missed it.

“Uhm” Stebbins fully turned back, one foot perfectly in front of the other, like a ballet dancer, he held his hand right below his tie, he stepped forward a little, and kneeled down, he took Garraty’s hand lightly, and barely, just the tips of his fingers touching Garraty’s skin, he made an up and down awkward motion “Nice to meet... you?”

“My pleasure!” Garraty smiled, he wasn't about to criticize a rabbit’s ability to shake hands.

Stebbins looked to the side, and whispered “My own.”

“Awww” Garraty looked back Stebbins’s shoulder to see McVries “How heartwarming!” 

Stebbins retrieved his hand immediately and stood up at once “Shut up, McVries.”

“Why? Isn't a meager, wretched, Mad Hatter, such as myself, allowed to dream of heartwarming scenes?”

“No, you are not.”

McVries flinched a little “Critical hit.”

“Good” Stebbins answered.

“Hey” The guy with the cat ears raised his hand “My name is Art Baker, I'm the Cheshire Cat” Garraty nodded “And you, Stebbins, are still very late” Baker raised his hand up as if to demonstrate it, and in that moment, the trumpets resounded.

Stebbins’s ears flinched up “I'm late!” He ran back, and jumped off the table, without stepping on any cake, or cup, the mantel only wrinkling under his shoes, McVries stared at him as he jumped right beside his shoulder, and ran away to the garden.

“Ah!” Somebody yelled in the back, Garraty turned back, a little boy with small mouse ears seemed to have suddenly woken up, Garraty hadn't seen him at all.

“He stepped on my hair!” He patted his own head, with teary eyes.

“And that's Percy, he's The Dormouse” McVries explained “We keep him around, because we never learned to let go of him.”

“Hi” Garraty waved at him “Are you hurt?” 

“Don't worry, Dormouses don't get hurt” McVries explained.

“Oh… okay” Garraty nodded.

“And I'm here too! Don't forget I'm part of this scene too!” The one sitting on McVries’s left raised his fist against the sky, as if reclaiming to the screenwriter of this play “My name is Hank Olson, I'm The March Hare.”

Olson had light brown rabbit ears (That Garraty was pretty sure he didn't need to keep mentioning that, by this point) and the most patched up suit on the world, Garratty shook hands with him too.

“Sorry.”

“Anybody else we are forgetting?” McVries said, looking around.

“There's the gatekeepers, Mike and Joe, Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum, but they aren't here” Baker said.

“They are also not on the gates” Garraty said, so this sort of mansions were supposed to have gatekeepers too.

“Oh, you haven't been to their usual gates” Said McVries “Now, don't you want to take a seat?” McVries signaled, with his open palm, to the huge chair besides Garraty.

Garraty carefully sat down, the chair went off balance below him, and whatever it was made of, Garraty couldn't distinguish if it was wood or bronze, creaked awfully under his weight “Thank you.”

“You are welcome” McVries gave him one amused wink before sipping on his tea, Garraty wondered what McVries had meant winking like that. 

“Take some wine!” Olson said, throwing a teacup across the table, Garraty was glad it stopped way before it was actually near him, though.

“You have wine?” Garraty looked around, everything was huge or tremendously small cakes, milk, and tea.

“No! This is a Tea Party! Why would we have wine?” Olson brought up his teacup, and the contents all spilled from the sides, making new darker spots on the tablecloth.

“Ignore the idiot, Ray” McVries said.

“Hey!”

“And have some tea instead” McVries passed him a white, and blue nice little teacup “It's black tea with milk.”

Garraty looked at it, its insides were like galaxies dancing around, and Garraty had already drunk one unidentified liquid on a pretty vessel this morning, and he hadn't died so? He gave it a quick, shy sip.

“Oh!” Garraty felt the taste of stars on his tongue, he didn't know how he knew that, he simply was sure that this is how stars would taste like in this world, like a wonder.

“What is it, Ray?” McVries asked, head slightly tilted to one side, one gloved pinky finger still up.

“It tastes amazing!” Garraty said, he felt really embarrassed now.

McVries chuckled, his laugh made his voice sound deeper “I'm glad you like it.”

“I liked it a lot, thank you for putting milk on it.”

“You do look like you would like it.”

“I do?”

“You do” McVries nodded thoughtfully “And speaking about things you do, Happy Unbirthday!”

“My Unbirthday?” Garraty pointed to himself.

“You know, the day that isn't your birthday” Olson said “Today isn't anybody's birthday!”

“I'm sure it must be somebody's birthday” Said Garraty.

“Is it your birthday?” Baker asked.

“No...”

“Then it isn't anybody's birthday, this table right now, is everywhere” Baker said, he was making circles inside his teacup, with a small silver spoon.

“I know it's my unbirthday today” Said McVries.

“It's my unbirthday too” Garraty said, he still felt self-conscious in the middle of all of this.

“That's why I said: Happy Unbirthday” McVries raised his cup again “Now down all your tea.”

“Eh?”

“On your Unbirthday, you either sing a silly song, or down all your tea in one go, do you want to sing?”

“I help you sing.”

“Art, no.”

“Or chug it” McVries finished.

“I chug it” Garraty took his cup up, and downed it, it wasn't particularly hard, but it was the first time he had been pressured into drinking a whole teacup at once.

Garraty finished, and breathed out to the cheers of <<Happy! Unbirthday!>> When he looked up, the night was already here.

Suddenly night fell, like a new cardboard background on a play, it fell heavily, and all at once, Garraty stared at it, it was one of the most unnatural things he had ever seen, it had been plain daylight when he had first closed his eyes, and he didn't mind it as much as he was sure he should.

“You should stay” McVries said, staring at the moon behind Garraty.

“But-” Garraty looked around himself, there wasn't any reason not to stay, but his first instinct was always to reject others.

“Do you have another place to stay?” Baker asked.

“Actually… no.”

“Then, please stay, we will love your company” McVries said.

Garraty looked at the empty teacup below him, remnants of black and white dancing on it, it made him think of ashes for some reason, he breathed in deeply, he couldn't understand why this of all things made him so self-conscious.

He looked up at McVries, his eyes were so difficult to hold contact with “Okay. Please have me, I hope I won't bother.”

“Not at all” McVries clinked his teacup with one finger. 

“Good, because I have somewhere to go!” Baker announced, then promptly disappeared, Garraty immediately put his arm through the now empty space of Baker’s chair, and moved it around.

  
“If he was still there, he would be on his right to bite your arm” Olson said.

“So, he is more cat than human” Garraty noted.

“Yes, you better go to sleep, before you get your arm bitten” McVries said, standing up from his chair.

“Didn't you say he wasn't here?” Garraty looked back, from Olson to McVries.

“With Artie, you never know” McVries stretched, and began walking inside the residence with no hurry, Olson and Percy walked behind him like ducklings, Garraty blinked a few times before he realized he had to follow as well.

* * *

  
McVries stood in front of the dark brown doors of his mansion, they looked like they were made from a giant to enter, and in reality, they might be. 

Garraty felt like they extended as far as the eye could see, but he could see the ceiling of the mansion, and there weren't doors there, McVries clapped once, and they opened themselves up.

McVries walked in, he reminded Garraty of a cat walking through his neighborhood, the rest simply ran in, and away.

“The idiot, and Percy, are going to their rooms” McVries said, Garraty looked at Percy who had fallen asleep on the hallway, and Olson who was off to an unknown place, with the same expression as a cowboy riding off to the horizon.

Garraty nodded towards Percy “Does he not have a room?”

“The world can be your room, if you so will it, and Percy has mastered it” McVries utterly ignored it, Garraty decided to approach Percy, McVries stopped walking, he looked over, callous, with his arms lazily crossed in front of his chest.

Garraty kneeled down and whispered “You shouldn't sleep here.”

Percy opened his eyes all at once, jumping back, he slightly got himself hit against the cream-colored wall.

“Are you okay?”

Percy reached to the back of his head, making that miserable face with squeezed eyes, and tight lips that children make right before they cry. 

Garraty winced, he hated seeing children cry, it didn't matter if these children had rat ears and a tail. 

“Please don't cry!” Garraty put his hands in front of his face, like he was trying to protect himself.

“Don't worry! Don't worry!” A woman dressed as a maid came running towards them, she grabbed Percy, and carried him, his head resting on her collarbone, the woman looked between him and McVries, McVries nodded idly, the woman immediately bowed “Thank you very much, Sir!” 

“N-No, it's okay” Garraty looked down at his feet, abashed “I didn't do anything” It felt strange being referred to as ‘Sir.’

“He will be staying with us from now on, so make sure you don't scare him too much” McVries said.

“I will?”

“Welcome to The Hatter Mansion, Sir” The Maid bowed again.

“Do you have another place to go?”

“...No.”

“Then welcome home” McVries’s smirk was blinding.

“Thank you” Garraty felt it blaze through him.

“You are welcome” And McVries kept walking.

Garraty felt like he was being led through a never-ending maze, he thought he had seen the same rooms at least five times now, McVries simply walked without a sweat, not looking back through the mansion for what felt like either hours or a couple minutes, until he stopped on dry, took a right turn, and presented a long long hallway full of doors, of the exact same height, and colour to him.

“These are some of the rooms” McVries presented them “Enter whichever one you like, because they are all the same inside, resembling us.”

Garraty didn't think all people inside were the same, but he nodded regardless, and opened up the one right in front of him. 

The insides were far more normal than Garraty had expected, a big room, that felt far too big to exist so concisely, a door he assumed led to a bathroom, a bed, and some furniture.

“You look like you were expecting something else” McVries’s presence behind him felt vast, and important, he shivered under the wind of his words.

“Do I?” Garraty ignored that, he turned to look at McVries, he couldn't look him in the eye, he always had issues looking at people in the eye “After today, I was expecting to see something more...” What would be the right word for it? “...Wonderful.” 

“I will make it more wonderful. As wonderful as you couldn't imagine it to be” McVries declared, Garraty felt stung by how doubtless McVries was, McVries looked like he could lower the stars, if he really wanted one.

“I will look forward to it.”

“You should” McVries smiled, thinly, the lines of his face looking truthfully, Garraty was scared he could miss it, like missing the waves on the ocean, after a big splash “Rest, Ray” McVries said, opening the door.

“You too, Pete” That was the first time he had said his name, right? It felt like it, it felt meaningful, like the first drop of rain before a hurricane.

“I try” McVries said, then closed the door behind him.

Garraty didn't want to look at the bed as he laid in it, the unfamiliarity always killed him inside, each and every time, instead he allowed himself to feel the freshness of the new sheets, he closed his eyes, and wonderfully, he did sleep.

* * *

Garraty looked at the outside, it was morning, this place felt like it was either plain high morning, or the deepest night, with no in betweens.

He had woken up, and tried to go back from whence he had come, he hadn't found the path at all, this mansion had way too many doors, windows, hallways, Garraty didn't know where to go, didn't know how to ask for directions, after a while he had decided to stop here.

He was standing in front of a door, its outside led to a small garden, full of white and red roses, and little else, he had chosen to stay outside the garden, to only look at it from afar, like standing too near them could make them whiter.

“What are you searching for?” Garraty felt a hand on his shoulder, and jumped back, this has happened way too many times already, and it would happen even more times later on in the story, the voice continued after Garraty calmed down a little “I'm sorry, did I scare you?” Garraty saw the form outline itself, and smile wildly at him.

“It’s you” One of the persons he had met yesterday, Art Baker.  
  


“Yes, that's me” Baker stood fully visible besides him now, which conciliated Garraty a great deal.

“Good morning, Art” Garraty waved.

“Good morning” Baker waved back, but only moving his fingers up and down, one by one "Before I scared you, what were you searching for?”

Garraty pursed his lips, he knew the obvious simple answer was: The way outside, but somehow it didn't feel right to say that to Baker, Baker looked like he was waiting for a real answer “Which way I should walk from here.” 

“That depends a good deal of where you want to get to.”

“Where, doesn't really matter.”

“Then whatever path you choose doesn't really matter either.”

Garraty went back to staring to the garden, at the flower petals swinging with the air, they were going in the opposite direction from the breeze, coming undone every now, and then “No, it doesn't really matter” He said “But a path out of here, would be preferred.”

“You are sure to do that, if you walk long enough” Baker had a soft smile, almost an implicit on his face, the way the sun was in the sky, always there, always warm.

Garraty decided he was true “Alright, what path do you take, Art?”

“To where?”

“To your place, yesterday you said you did have somewhere to go, or do you live here too?”

“I don't live here, the path I take isn't very special, cats always find the path if they really want to go.”

“I see” Garraty nodded, smoothly and prudent “Do you dislike the people who live here?”

“Of course not” Baker smiled wider, his white fangs showing, the lines drawn on his face seemed so gentle, and predatory “Everybody in this mansion is my friend.”

“Everybody” Garraty repeated faintly “What kind of people are they?”

Baker’s eyes went away, losing themselves on the white roses, he didn't answer for a second, as another petal was blown away. 

“Mad people” He said, Garraty felt daunted by that answer, he wondered if it showed in his eyes, Baker’s pupils were thin, and sharp “Only mad people live in this country.”

“Are you a mad person too, Art?”

“I live here.”

“Do you think I'm a mad person too, Art?”

“You live here, Ray.”

“Yeah, I do” Garraty took it as a truth.

Baker chucked quietly “Walk to the end of this hallway and take a left, you should find what you are searching for there” Baker said, then disappeared, Garraty felt more appalled by his absence, than by his leave. 

* * *

Garraty walked forward, he lost nothing by doing what Baker told him, he counted the doors in his way out, he couldn't count past six, he was sure he had counted them twenty times now, he took a right.

Garraty didn't really feel so surprised, as he stood before the only different door he had seen since the garden one, a crimson pair of doors in the middle of the white hallway, it felt a little obvious, he supposed, he had simply followed the instructions given to him by a person who was more used to the place than him.

He stayed, staring at the door for a couple of seconds, he wanted to open it, but he couldn't bring himself to, he was so bad at doing the things he wanted to do, and so things kept happening around him without much of his input on. 

“Where’s Stebbins the one time you actually need him?” 

The doors opened, and Garraty almost fell forwards “I’m sorry” He looked up, it was McVries.

“Hi, almost-down-there, Ray” McVries’s hat tipped on the side of his head, as he smiled at Garraty.

“I didn't mean to almost fall on you.”

“Why not?” It made Garraty feel mauled, how McVries sounded far more curious than teasing.

“I don't want to fall on you.” 

“What do you want to fall on me?”

“Nothing at the moment.”

“So, not falling on me, what did you want to do on me, then?”

“Nothing” He was breathing harder, Garraty knew he was getting far too aggravated by something silly like this, and that he shouldn't let it show so much like this, but he couldn't help it “I didn't want to do anything on you.”

“Then why _did_ you come to my room, Ray?” McVries arched one eyebrow.

“I didn't know it was your room” Garraty said.

“Only exploring your new environment, Ray?” He made it sound like a question, it wasn't a question.

“You could say so.”

“Are you getting bored already? Boredom is the worst torture on the world” He turned to look at the inside before Garraty could answer, Garraty thought that boredom wasn't such a torture, it should be good to be bored, it should be good to live peacefully, even if boredly “There's not a whole lot in this house besides work for us, and a lot of books for me, and you, if you like reading, that is” And Garraty did like reading a lot.

“You got a lot of books?” Garraty hoped he didn't look too much like a puppy in front of a treat.

“Yes, most of them, in my room” McVries stepped aside, letting a little of the inside of his room to be seen “Do you want to check them out?” Garraty looked at the bits of McVries’s room he could descry from there, they seemed a little coercing but Garraty did want to go “I don't bite, Ray” McVries rolled his eyes “Or most of the time at least.”

“I wasn't thinking that!”

“Is my room too scary looking?”

“No, I don't think so.”

“Then…?” McVries opened the door wider.

“Alright” Garraty nodded, his head a little bowed, and stepped in.

* * *

McVries’s room was fairly simple, Garraty thought, all things considered, it was full of bizarre, hats of all sizes and kinds, one sitting on every corner, but besides that, it had a proper pair of windows, and curtains a white, made bed, and a bunch of books.

The right wall was hidden behind a stand filled to the brim with books, all of them had those turned, yellowing used corner pages, that indicated a book had been used, and enjoyed, beyond such niceties more than once.

“Grab whatever catches your fancy” McVries pointed with his head to the stand.

“Are you sure?” Garraty didn't know why he felt like he was walking into dangerous territory.

“Sure, they are books, Ray, they don't bite either”

“Most of the time?”

“Most of them.”

Garraty walked up to the shelf, the books had beautiful covers, or blank covers, no in betweens here either.

He grabbed a book with a footprint as a cover, it seemed familiar, he opened it, it was written in a language he had never seen before, in shapes, he didn't know if he could replicate, and he understood every word of it perfectly.

“What do you want?” McVries asked him, looking at his hands holding onto the book’s pages, as if suddenly they would grow into butterfly wings, and fly far away, where he could never know them again.

“What do you mean?” Garraty always felt like he wanted everything, always felt like he needed nothing. 

“You have that dissatisfied look in your eyes, the sort of eyes expecting something else” McVries looked like he wanted to reach a hand out, and hold his face, Garraty wondered why he didn't do it.

“I don't.”

“You do” Garraty looked at McVries’s fingers, the veins of his arms were marked, he remembered when he was a child he thought all blood was blue until it was out of you, his veins were as blue as a bruise “Why?”

“I don't know.”

“Are you sure you don't?”

Garraty thought about it, all those things he would never say out loud, he spoke without thinking sometimes, he was better at keeping to himself the things he actually thought about, most times.

“Ray” McVries repeated.

“Can I work here?” Garraty knew that wasn't the answer McVries had been searching for, at least he felt it that way, but he still needed to answer something.

“Do you want to work here?” McVries tilted his head, the feathers on his hat switching around, Garraty found it cute.

“Can I not?”

McVries chuckled a little “What do you know how to do?”

“What do you want me to do?”

McVries’s eyes didn't leave Garraty’s, he fake pouted as he tried to remember “We could use another cook”

“I know how to cook.”

“We will be waiting for your curriculum” Garraty rammed his hand against his lips, McVries looked way too serious all of a sudden “Don't laugh! You are the one who asked!”

“Sorry, sorry” Garraty brought both palms up, as a sign of surrender, he held in his laughter as well as he could, which in hindsight wasn't very good “Thank you for the job.”

“I haven't given you the job yet, Ray.”

“You are not going to?”

“Ray.”

“Thank you for the offer?”

“Ray” McVries smiled, he looked calm, the hat pressing his bangs around the sides of his face, somehow this smile seemed far more genuine than any other “Are you going to look at any of the other books?”

“Oh, yeah” Garraty suddenly remembered what he had actually come here to do “I will.”

“Hope you like them.”

“I'm pretty sure I will” If McVries's books were anything like McVries himself, Garraty was sure he will.

* * *

“The Mad Hatter told us you would be working with us from now on” The Maid caught up to him, it was the same one he had seen taking care of Percy, he was standing around the kitchen without really daring to go inside at all, getting around the mansion had only gotten easier, and easier, since last time.

“You are also a cook?”

“I am a lot of things, boy” She looked like she was remembering something very traumatic.

“Alright” Garraty felt a little bad for her, all of a sudden “Pete did give me the job?” Garraty didn't feel comfortable talking so casually to a stranger, but he suppressed that. 

“It’s called humoring the guest” Yeah, he should be feeling grateful for that, for having a, technically, landlord so willing to let him freelance, and work on his house, he should say thank you again later.

“Thank you very much.”

“Aww, you are a little dear, aren't you?” The maid cooed, Garraty felt like disappearing “Now come in, come on, boy.”

The Maid shoved him inside the kitchen “But The Hatter still wants you to cook something for him, to act as if he's a responsible human being sometimes, even though he's not even human.”

“He's not?”

“Are you?” She said, eyes wide, she looked like a tired mom “Is any of us???” Garraty supposed not “But here’s the kitchen, I assume you already know how to use it, I suggest you make-”

“I would like to choose that myself” Garraty felt like he didn't sound like himself, but he always did his best to sound polite to other people, even though that only made him sound weird to himself.

The Maid blinked twice, she seemed a little elated “Alright, then, if you need help finding anything, call me.”

“What's your name?”

“The Maid capitalized will suffice” She said, and walked off the kitchen.

“Well, time to do the only kinda, fancy thing I know how to do, that maybe, he would like” Garraty sighed, one had to feel blessed when one did something with passion, sometimes, he supposed.

He searched for the ingredients, they were all on the first cabinet he looked through, they didn't look anything like what he was used to, but he knew they were the things he was searching for, was that how everything on this mansion worked?

He put them all together, on the wood counter, and began working.

* * *

<<Bling!>> The oven’s timekeeper (AKA a very big sand clock) made a little noise as the smell of macaroon’s filled the air, Garraty hoped, to any, and all Gods that could possibly be out there, for the macaroons to not be burned, or a vessel to Satan himself.

He approached the oven, and opened it with one mitten-covered hand, resisting the impulse of closing both his eyes as he did.

Carefully, he examined the macaroons.

“Thank God” Garraty felt a crux being lifted from his shoulders, they were actually cooked and not burnt, and not the worst thing he had ever seen, thank god.

He held them cautiously and brought them to the tray he had already gotten out.

Garraty put them all carefully in a little mountain, on the middle of the tray then grabbed it strongly with both hands, and walked out of the kitchen.

He saw McVries sitting at the furthest center chair on the mismatched table, it really was a lot of small tables put together. He breathed deeply and presented it to him “Here it is, Macaroons.”

“You made macaroons!?” McVries looked very happy about it, and that made Garraty feel very happy about it.

“Yes, most of them are grape flavored” Garraty sat the tray down in front of him.

“Grape Flavored” McVries said under his breath.

“Hope you like them!”

McVries grabbed the one on the very top of the little mountain, McVries held it carefully before his eyes for a second, he looked like a curious, huge puppy, and then gave it one big bite. 

“It tastes... amazing...” McVries looked at the rest of the pile with wide teary eyes, he grabbed his hat and removed it on one tug, he had the biggest bed head Garraty had ever seen, his black hair plucking and tweaking around, it looked a little adorable to him, McVries clutched it tightly against his chest “You are so… so…. hired.”

“Thank you!” Garraty’s heart was beating like crazy, he really wasn't used to getting this much positive attention, or any attention at all, for that sort of matter, he grabbed the back of his neck awkwardly, avoiding McVries’s delighted gaze on him.

“But I'm sure they had already told you that, because my employees don't know how to keep anything to themselves, to save their lives” McVries said, putting his hat back on, Garraty felt slightly disappointed about McVries’s bed head disappearing again.

“Are all of them like that?”

“You will get used to us” McVries said, then grabbed another macaroon and ate it “Sit down, and eat some yourself, Ray.”

Garraty felt improper doing that, but he supposed everything here was improper, improper, and very convenient.

He took the chair at McVries’s right and sat there, he grabbed one of the caramel macaroons and ate it rapidly, he had never liked his own cooking a lot, he cooked for nobody to eat, he used to cook entire cakes back home, and then throw them away three days after, he wondered when somebody would come into his kitchen, and be hungry for something he made. 

“I gave you this job, because I wanted to take that dissatisfied look out of your eyes, but it's still there.”

Garraty couldn't help it, he had never noticed it, but he would keep on lying as much as McVries allowed him to, he simply had to think up new lies, and McVries would soon enough grow bored of him too “This is a country, right?”

“Like everywhere else.”

“I want to meet the rest of the people here, Pete.”

“Did you know everyone at your old country?”

“No” Garraty played with the hearts fabric napkin placed in front of him “But you seem to know a lot of people.”

“I do?”

“You do” Garraty nodded, McVries slowly, and purposely brought another macaroon to his mouth, he seemed to give it a thought, as he tasted it fully “Good for you because, I have a tea party with other people now”

Garraty was taken back “Right now?”

“Yup, right away, at 3 o’clock, and I need to bring something to them, and these macaroons will do wondrously.”

“Are you sure? I did them on a whim, should I make more? I-” Garraty always got so worried about this sort of stuff.

“No, you didn't.”

“Eh?”

“You did them quickly, but you didn't do them in a whim” McVries said “They are really good” McVries grabbed one, but didn't eat it, he simply traced the texture on his fingertips “Or did The Maid tell you?”

“She didn't tell me what to do, I did them all myself, I figured out you would like treats like this.”

“You figured out I would like them...” He sounded really pensive, his eyes mired to it.

“Yes, did you... like them?”

“Aren't you listening? Would I want to bring them with me if I didn't?” McVries placed it back down.

“I don't know, you could be taking them to poison your hosts.”

McVries laughed out loud “I could, but I swear I'm not” He placed his hand on his chest “Across my heart, and I hope to die.”

Garraty giggled “Where are we going to?”

“Get up, and I show you” McVries stood up, and began walking away.

“Hold on, wait for me” Garraty grabbed the tray, and chased after him.

* * *

McVries led the way outside the mansion, he always walked before him, but his eyes never strayed away from him for too long, it kept Garraty on the edge, no matter how many times they had walked together around the mansion now.

They crossed the golden gates. 

“These are Mike and Joe” McVries introduced him to a pair of really similar looking guys, standing before the gates.

“Nice to meet you” Garraty shook hands with them.

“Our pleasure” Garraty couldn't tell if they were both talking at the same time.

"Are these your usual gates?" It sounded out of the blue, even to him, but he had to ask, he still remembered, and was pretty curious.

Mike made a serious face "Out of commission at the moment" And didn't say anything else.

"Alright" Garraty nodded, this wasn't the time to question them.

"Shall we, Ray?" McVries said.

"Going" Garraty waved a quick goodbye to Mike and Joe, they waved back 

“Bye, Boss” Said Mike to McVries.

“Bye, Ray” Said Joe.

“Bye, guys” Garraty said more on McVries’s behalf than his own this time, McVries was the nicest boss on some days, and the most aloof one on others, or so Garraty had come to find.

McVries was already off again, Garraty walked a little faster to be able to hear him better when he began talking again.

"Now, of course, I wouldn't make, my very dear invitee, have to walk all the way to The Castle of Hearts, I'm not such a terrible host” McVries said, an amused look in his eyes.

“Never thought you were” Gararty said, he really meant it, through, and through, he was very contented on his current life, and people, he didn't know if it was a good thing that he was so soothed with all the strangeness around him, or that he didn't even find that many strange things around him, anymore. 

“Why, thank you, my dear.”

Garraty stared at the ground, his eyes not finding where to settle, the very same as his heart “Don't say that.” 

“Why not?” McVries said, but before Garraty could answer (Garraty didn't even know what he would have liked to answer) McVries halted his tracks. 

McVries took a step back, and opened his arms, broadly in front of him “Now, what I wanted to show you.”

Garraty looked up, and didn't see anything, then side to side, and didn't see anything either “Ah? What did you want to show me, Pete?” 

“This” McVries said, then suddenly dropped down, he squatted before the grass in front of them “Can't you see?” He pointed boldly to a blank spot on the grass.

Garraty still didn't see anything “Yeah, I can see.”

“Good” McVries nodded, resting his chin on his open palm for a second “Now, see more!” He jumped back up, got a bottle out of nowhere, and poured a bunch of liquid over the grass.

And from there, came a carriage and a frog.

“They didn't come out of the bottle, the liquid made them bigger” McVries said.

“Oh, okay” Were his facial expressions that easy to read?

McVries chuckled, apparently his facial expressions were that easy to read, then nodded to the frog, the frog jumped up to the carriage’s door and opened it, McVries got inside, and offered him a hand “Come here.”

Garraty took it, and McVries helped him walk inside, the carriage’s black metal steps were sturdier than they looked, he sat in front of McVries, shoulder touching against the bouncing glass as they moved forward, shadows hiding the scarred half of McVries’s face, the fact that McVries was probably strong enough to carry him inside the carriage by himself, was calling to him.

And they were off.

* * *

Garraty stared through the window as they left the mansion, the whole place was a continuous forest of different colours, like a fairy tale he would have held close to his heart as a child.

“Do you like it?”

“It's the exact kind of background I would like” He sounded so dreamy.

“You don't look very happy about it.”

“I'm not sure if that's a good, or bad thing.”

“Yet” McVries finished.

Garraty brought his eyes back to McVries, he wondered how somebody could be right besides the sun, and still be so covered in shadows, he always acted like he was overthinking it, he always felt like he wasn't thinking about anything at all, useless. 

“Yet” Garraty conceded. 

“We are here!” The Frog Driver (Garraty supposed) called to them, as the car slowed down to a stop.

“That was quick” Garraty said, holding the tray with the macaroons on a more secure grip. 

“Otherwise the scene will get too boring” McVries said, then kicked the door open “Allow, this but a poor servant, to help you off the carrier, Missus” McVries extended his hand out for the tray, Garraty gave it to him, meticulously, he was still nervous.

McVries helped him off the carriage, with the other hand, into the rocky grey path underneath them, the Frog Driver bowed as a farewell, McVries passed him the tray back, and the carriage took off.

“Over here” McVries led him through the way.

“You are always late too” Garraty jumped back “This is really what scares you, instead of everything else, you may be the odd one here, Ray.”

Garraty quickly turned back to see Stebbins’s amused smile.

“Greetings, Stebbins” McVries said, a side smirk on his face, he, too, always seemed amused with Stebbins around. 

“Oh, it’s you,” Garraty said.

“Who else would I be?”

“I can name a lot of things, like Rabbit Cacciatore,” McVries said.

“Like you would be that lucky, McVries” Stebbins huffed.

“This poor devil can dream, right?”

“Even your dreams are menaces to society” McVries smirked wider at that, Stebbins ignored him, and turned his gaze to Garraty "Why is this my job, shouldn't it be his?” He said under his breath, Garraty tilted his head, Stebbins sighed, tried to put on a less irked face, and said “Welcome to the Castle of Hearts, Invitees." 

“The Castle?” Garraty said.

“Of Hearts” McVries finished.

“The Castle of Hearts,” Stebbins said, and nodded.

Garraty blinked twice “Okay.”

“Do you only like slow people, Pete?” Stebbins looked at McVries up and down.

“That's why I'm your friend.”

“We are friends?”

“You were doubting it?” McVries rested his right elbow on top of Stebbins’s shoulder, Stebbins avoided his eyes, McVries smiled more sincerely at him. 

“Let's go already, or it will be off with your heads” Stebbins batted McVries’s hands away, and began walking away, McVries followed him.

“Don't freeze, Ray, I want your head to always be attached to your body” McVries stopped briefly to give Garraty time to catch up, Garraty ran to him. 

Stebbins took them to the end of the path, the road changed directions, and twisted around a lot, Garraty didn't really feel that much of a difference between walking like this, and walking on a straight line.

“The Heart Maze” Stebbins said, stopping on the entrance to a grass and bushes made labyrinth “The Castle is at the end of it.” 

Stebbins walked in without a second thought, without waiting for them at all.

“Really you should be walking yourselves through it. I don't know why they sent me to do it.”

“That he says, as if he has got anything better to do” McVries said, gesturing wildly with his hands behind Stebbins.

“I have an actual job, unlike you, McVries.”

“I didn't know it was part of The Prime Minister’s daily schedule to go meet up with The Cheshire Cat at the forest, daily.”

“Ah!-” Stebbins chocked for a solid minute “Okay! That's it! Walk yourselves!”

“Sorry, sorry” McVries grabbed him before he could run away from them, McVries swung a very angry, and desperate Stebbins back and forth for a couple seconds.

“Fine! Let go of me. I will walk you!”

“Thank you, Bunny” McVries gave him a dazzling smile.

“You really want to die, don't you?” 

“How often do you guys do this?” Garraty asked, he was feeling pretty drained all of a sudden.

* * *

Stebbins went without paying them much attention, McVries followed freely, and without second thought through the maze, they made idle chat on the meanwhile, Garraty felt nervous about how he figured they were going late by now, but he didn't think that McVries, nor Stebbins would care a whole lot.

Stebbins stopped, at what Garraty saw as the end of the maze.

“Ready to meet The Queen of Hearts, Ray, My Dear?” McVries asked him.

“Are you?” Garraty said.

“Trust me, nobody is” Stebbins said, Garraty gulped down, and continued following.

“You are! Late!” A really, extremely, short guy, was standing on top of a monumental throne.

Stebbins dropped back to him a little, and whispered into his ear “He's Gary Barkovitch, The Queen of Hearts, don't call him Queen, it will be off with your head” And smiled wickedly.  
  


“Thank you for the advice, Stebbins” Garraty said, a knot in his throat, his hands trembling a little, hidden under the tray.

“You are welcome” Stebbins replied, then walked away.

Barkovitch was standing on top of his, very, very tall throne, with a way too small chair screaming “Late!” Barkovitch kept going “I should send you to the guillotine for that!” 

“Please, don't, Barkovitch” McVries said, he didn't look worried at all, he stood with both arms crossed languidly over his lower chest “Does His Majesty, The Queen, don't want some treats?”

“Why are you like this?” Garraty was feeling way too drained.

“Off with yo!- Wait, what are they?” Barkovitch looked down at him, with wide curious eyes, and his arms protectively over his chest.

“Macaroons, some of them are strawberry flavored” He figured The Queen of Hearts would like red stuff. 

“Really?” He looked, dangerously close to an easily impressionable child.

“Really” McVries nodded exaggeratedly to Barkovitch, while giving him the side eye, Garraty understood the signal, but he didn't like it a lot. 

He did his best to show a not so tense face, and approached the throne, he held the macaroon tray high up, Barkovitch ran off his throne’s little stairs, and took them away with him back up.

“Table!” Barkovitch yelled up, apparently to nobody in particular, but after a minute thousands of guards on card deck uniforms came out of the bushes, carrying a table barely big enough to fit them “What are you waiting for!? Put it here!” Barkovitch pointed at the spot right between him, and Garraty, the guards diligently placed it there “And my treats too!” Barkovitch left the macaroon tray fall, and a guard barely managed to catch it before it hit the ground, and place it on the table, Stebbins shamelessly stepped up to the table, and stole a couple of white macaroons for himself.

“But whatever, what we actually came here to speak about” Barkovitch declared.

“There's an actual reason?” Garraty said.

“I know I'm surprised too” McVries answered him.

“The Ball!”

“The Ball?”

“God, they have a ball.”

“Yeah, it’s about that time of the year, already” McVries looked at Barkovitch, that sudden playful air had already gone away.

“And! We all hate it!” Barkovitch said, the feeling of having a sovereign child, five seconds away from a tantrum, right before him, put Garraty on total edge, to say the least “But the rules are the rules, We had to invite you, We invited you..” He took another small bite off his macaroons “You may visit the rest of Our kingdom now” Barkovitch said, he had his chin held up, and his eyes closed, trying to savor the most of this slightly nice moment.

“He's only trying to look like a monarch” Stebbins whispered to Garraty “Pathetic.”

Garraty ignored it “When's the ball?” He felt like he had missed something here.

“The invitation to the ball will come, when you least expect it” Stebbins said, laughing wryly.

“Aren't you afraid he will say off with your head too?” Garraty looked worriedly between Stebbinsm and Barkovitch, he had whispered but still, there was the possibility Barkovitch had heard him. 

Stebbins didn't look preoccupied at all, he had that sleepy-eye look, Stebbins grabbed one of the macaroons, and bite it in half, its inner contents spilling slowly “It doesn't worry me, because even if His Majesty would love to have my head hanging as a trophy on his room, he can't” And he bit the other half.

Garraty realized Stebbins was a scary person too, he turned his attention back to McVries.

“We will be taking you for your word, Queen” McVries simpered, and overdramatically bowed.

Garraty was watching this tense conversation closely, and quietly.

Stebbins whispered to him again “Your ‘Friend’ on the other hand, Barkovitch would do anything to have his head on a stick.”

“Why does he invite him for tea then?” Garraty asked.

“Shouldn't you ask that to The Hatter instead?” Stebbins rolled his eyes, he grabbed the teacup in front of him, he began mixing it with the little white spoon, going against the clock.

“Ask me what?” McVries paid attention to him again, relying on his elbows to get closer to Garraty across the table, Garraty didn't think McVries was actually waiting for an answer, but McVries wasn't saying anything else so... Garraty looked through the corner of his eye to Barkovitch, biting the inner part of his cheek, it was a habit he had picked up as a child, sometimes he could do it until he bled, most times, he could do it after he bled “Are you gossiping to my little Alice about it, Bunny?”

Stebbins dropped the spoon on the teacup, the excess dripped down the white mantel “Call me that one more time, Hatter, and I cut off your head myself.”

“I'm sorry, I didn't hear you” McVries cupped one hand around his ear, grazing against his hat “What did you say? Bunny?” 

“Okay, I warned him” Stebbins stood up, and Garraty immediately reached to make him sit down again, he held onto Stebbins’s waist.

“Pete, let's go, and be nice, okay?” He let go of Stebbins, and placed his hand softly on top of McVries’s.

“Fine” McVries lowered the hand he was using as a hearing aid, and placed it on top of Garraty’s “But only because you are the one asking me.”

“Should I be happy, or scared?”

“Both” Stebbins spoke up, he was staring deadly seriously at the tea stains “We don't call him The Mad Hatter for nothing.”

“Do I really have such a bad reputation?”

Stebbins looked at McVries’s, and Garraty’s intertwined hands on the table “Is that a real question?”

“Stop ignoring me! or leave already!” Barkovitch yelled from his throne.

“And there you are, Your Majesty” Stebbins said, then boredly took a sip from his tea.

“Another one to the list of ignored characters” McVries said “Should we take the tray back with us?”

“Leave it here.”

“Leave!”

“We are leaving now.”

Garraty stood up from his chair and bowed, McVries did not, and they left the gardens.

* * *

“What do we do now, Pete?” Garraty looked back at the maze, why was it always so easy to get out, and so impossible to get in.

McVries was looking forward, he seemed to really be thinking it, with his eyes focused on the sky “Want to see the rest of the town?”

Garraty looked down, he felt his ears getting red, he hoped it wasn't so noticeable, he grappled his hand around his left arm “S-Sure.” 

“Follow me” McVries grabbed Garraty’s hand, and took them somewhere else.

* * *

Garraty was doing his best to ignore the feeling of McVries’s hands on his own, he couldn't, he didn't know how to feel okay, with his skin touching and living with another, but he really didn't want to let go at all, so he would do his best to overlook it, he really prayed his hands weren't too sweaty, or anything, though.

Garraty looked around himself, McVries had brought them to a little antique looking, but overall pretty regular plaza, with only a couple people standing here, and there, all the paths seemed to be made of the same rock they had first walked to the Heart Castle with. 

“There's all of this here?” Garraty’s eyes were drawn to the clothes shops, and the cafes around them. 

“Why, yes, indeed, we do have cafes on this humble land of ours.”

“Shut up” Garraty hit McVries’s arm with his closed fist lightly “How am I supposed to know that? I have never been here before.” 

“You have never seen a foreign country before?” McVries asked, shaking his head lightly, Garraty loved seeing him so cheered.

“Not like this” Garraty thought back to his hometown, he had never really left it at all, he had been there up until he hadn't been anymore, that somehow felt more meaningful than it probably was, how one could simply walk away, and become a ghost in his own house, like his dad had done, like his mother had become, like him right now, yup Garraty came from the most boring place in earth, where there's more graveyards than people they say “In my country, there's not people with rabbit ears at every corner.”

“And every few corners?”

“In no corners.”

“Are you sure?”

“For the most part.”

“What about horns?”

“There's people with horns here!?”

“Why are you so shocked about them?”

“There's definitely not people with horns where I come from?”

“What _is_ there in your town?”

Garraty thought about it, his first instinct was to say ‘Normal things’ “Roses, shops, people without animal parts of any sort except human...” He reached up on his tiptoes to touch the top of McVries’s hat “Hats, and Hatters.” 

“Any like me?”

“There's none like you.”

McVries laughed, he was so joyful, and that made Garraty laugh too, they stayed that way, laughing for a while, Garraty slowly and spellbinding slid his hands off his hat, and back to himself, he held them close to his chest, he felt like he had grabbed whatever good luck was made of.

McVries skimmed Garraty’s face over, then nodded to himself as if he had come to a very important decision “Here, let me show you something else they don't have where you come from” McVries held his hand up, gently, and Garraty chose to grab it.

McVries rushed to the other side of the street, Garraty sniggered a little, as the people around them turned to stranger forms.

McVries stopped in front of a small light wooden ambulant shop “Hey, Scramm.” 

“Hi, Hatter” Scramm spoke with a nasal voice, as if he was permanently sick “Hi, to you too” He said to Garraty. 

“Hi” Garraty was becoming accustomed to the idea, that McVries did know everyone in his country.

“Enough his, and hellos” McVries said, sounding even more theatrical than usual “Do you got the good stuff?”

“What are you going to buy?” Garraty said, turning his head away from Scramm, and the little trinkets and toys laying around, showing themselves off on the stand.

“You shall see” McVries whispered to Garraty, he reached inside his back pocket, and threw some things on top of the counter “That should pay it, right?”

“Right” Scramm answered, as he picked it up, and slowly counted it.

“You have a currency too?”

“How many times do you want me to tell you we are a country too? For example this hat” McVries pointed to the **10/6** tag on his hat “This hat costs 10 shillings, and sixpence.” 

“I see.”

“Now, see more” Scramm reached to one of the things hanging from the stand’s sides, and handed him a shiny red rose, with that knowing tickling look in his eyes a parent could give you sometimes. 

McVries bestowed it to him earnestly, deeply bowing down, his hat falling a little down on his head, Garraty stepped back a little. 

The rose began shining and broke down into a million fireflies, covered in blue cool light, the buzzing dancing around Garraty’s ears, they expanded around them, circling them, like they were everlasting, like they were every star on the sky come together to them, simply because they could, because they should, Garraty saw with every galaxy reflected on his eyes, the universe lived inside of them, it called them on their veins, the fireflies twinkled, and pranced around Garraty, and McVries could only look at him with his wide wonder eyes, and his mouth about to hang open. 

“Wow” Garraty felt like he could cry, like when he was a child, shamelessly making himself known on the street, of course, he wouldn't “They are beautiful.”

McVries’s eyes centered again, dangling and hunting, on every single, nice line on Garraty’s face, on Garraty’s eyes, on Garraty’s soul “I told you.”

“Sorry” Garraty laughed, one of the fireflies landed on his nose, and tickled him for an instant “You were right, in my country fireflies don't come from roses.”

“They don't exactly come from the roses here either, but they can go back to them” McVries clapped, and the fireflies reformed into the shiny rose.

“Hey” Garraty jumped, and the rose in his hands bounced “Bring them back.”

“You just have to clap” McVries said “It is your rose, after all.”

Garraty looked dazzled at the rose, clapped daintily, and the fireflies came back.

Garraty looked happily at them “This is so strange” Garraty said, he lowered his gaze to McVries’s profile, he had a relaxed smile on his face, he was saying it as an afterthought, an obvious remark, like the sky is blue, or I love you. 

“I thought you had already come to terms with that” McVries said, stepping over the lines on the marble floor beneath them.

“I did” Garraty answered “But I still realize it, more, and more, every time.”

“Curiouser, curiouser” McVries said “You better never lose that ability of yours to be marveled.”

“I don't think I will” Garraty smiled, furtively, with his eyes.

McVries allowed them a minute of silence, before looking up at the sky, Garraty looked up as well, as the sky went from plain daylight, to a golden noon, to night, in a span of seconds “We should get going already, shouldn't we?”

“How does that happen?”

“That's how the timeperiods work here.”

“Timeperiods?”

“You know, noon, evening, and night.”

“You know what” Garraty shook his head “I haven't questioned anything so far, I'm not going to question that.”

“Wise decision, My Ray” McVries reached inside his coat, and brought out the same bottle as when they had first come.

“Can I try?” Garraty said.

“Knock yourself off” McVries passed him the bottle “Over there” McVries pointed at a certain spot on the ground, where Garraty saw nothing, he hesitantly left the liquid drip onto the floor, and the frog, and carriage grew anew.

“That's enough” McVries said, Garraty stabilized the bottle, and gave it back.

Garraty and McVries went inside the carriage, sitting side by side, Garraty held onto the rose for dear life, and felt the warmth of McVries’s blood on his own.

* * *

Garraty and McVries walked through the gates.

“Should I put it on water?” Garraty said, feeling the petals lightly with the tips of his finger.

“Water helps them live longer” McVries saw him, and touched the opposite petals.

“Then, I'm going to go put my flower on water” Garraty said.

“Alright” McVries let his finger slide off the flower, and watched him go.

* * *

Garraty went back to his room, he felt like he could take any path in the world right now, and he would end up back on his room, and back with McVries, regardless of it all.

He opened up his room’s door, placed the rose on his boudoir, grabbed the empty vase that had been sitting there, ever so conveniently, as if waiting specifically for this moment, Garraty felt pathetic living in a world that appealed to him so much, then went to the bathroom for some water.

He came back, placed it on his nightstand, so he could see it first thing in the morning, and last thing in the night, each and every time, all so carefully, so tenderly, like holding a storm on his hands, and telling it everything would be alright, love was domestic to him, putting this rose on water was love to him.

He finished, he stared at it, he felt his heartstrings being pulled apart, this was all his heart’s muscle memory, he refused to laugh or cry. 

He walked back outside.

* * *

Garraty walked out of the mansion, and into the garden.

The garden at night was so different, he understood he didn't really have much knowledge on how this garden usually was, or looked, for all he knew what he saw was completely different from what the rest did.

It was surrounded by blue and yellow roses, they seemed to grow on their own, like the entire mansion was built upon a flowerbed of roses, the whole place smelled intoxicatingly sweet, something more than only the tea, sweets, and flowers. It smelled like him.

He walked further ahead, like he was simply wandering around, staring up at the stars, back at home he had been able to see them, they were so clear on the forest side, but here, they felt so close, shining like diamonds upon him, he almost felt like simply reaching up to one of them, and snatching it, but he knew that was ridiculous.

He kept going, he wasn't very centered on searching for anything, he already knew he would find it if he kept going, some things were that easy, if you want to find something, search for it. 

He didn't allow his eyes to steer away from any of the stars, he left his feet to walk themselves, however, they felt like it. 

“Do you want one?” Garraty’s eyes widened, he looked in front of him, the Tea Table, McVries was sitting down, one leg on top of the other, on his grand, bizarrely colored chair.

“One?” Garraty asked, his pupil traveling.

“One star, what else?” McVries grabbed the white cup sitting before him, and gave it a little sip.

“There could be a lot of other things” Garraty conceded.

“Yes, but I wouldn't be asking for any other” He placed it back down, tracing the edge with his gloved hand “So, do you?”

“How would you give me a star?” Garraty asked, somehow he felt like whatever McVries chose to answer, would be the truth.

“You reach up to this wonderful night sky for one, you hold onto it like onto your favorite candy, and you bring it down” McVries said, one hand up as if about to show it.

Garraty waited, waited for McVries to take the stars down from the sky, and give him the most wonderful one, but McVries didn't, he kept his hand far up, and his eyes locked on Garraty’s, Garraty realized McVries wouldn't do anything unless he asked, so he did. 

“Would you give me a star?”

McVries snickered, a coy grand smile, no teeth showing, he looked like a statue soon to be. 

“I could” He said, then slowly stood up from his chair, he got on top of it, his shoes planted heavily on the red cushion, then he reached to the sky, arm longed and secured, he searched a little, pick and choosing stars, of course, he would do something like that, the glint of the stars shone on McVries’s eyes, and McVries shone on Garraty’s.

McVries chose one, and held onto it, Garraty thought that glitter should fall on top of them the moment a star was taken from space, and so glitter fell.

The smallest pieces of stardust fell on them, on top of McVries’s shoulder, clinging to his face, like they belonged there, Garraty wouldn't be surprised at all, if McVries simply told him they did. Garraty felt them on top of him too, tickling his skin, a luster on him, and his heart.

McVries held it close to his chest for a second, then leaned down and gave it to him, wholly, like a prince. 

Garraty received it, he felt wordless, he felt heart-sick for a heart, a time, and a home he had never known, never been.

He held it tightly, his palms reddening, he looked up at McVries, his eyes were striking.

“Do you like it?” The star felt so warm underneath him, like a Sunday three o'clock afternoon, like a painting on a home, like everything he had ever longed for.

“I love it.”

“I'm glad” McVries said, then sat back down on his chair, the same position, somebody else wouldn't be able to know that anything had ever happened here, gladly, Garraty wasn't anybody else “Did you need something else, or only a star?”

Garraty felt like he needed everything in the world “I wanted to drink tea with you.”

“Good thing, because I do too” McVries poured him a cup, Garraty took his seat, right besides him, he held the star on his lap. The tea was soft, and nice, black tea with milk.

“Thank you, Pete.”

“You are welcome, Ray” McVries sounded soft and nice.

* * *

Garraty had gone back to his room, when, he didn't know, it didn't really matter at all, he had settled down into a quiet lifetime now, hadn't he?

He kept the star hidden somewhere beneath his bed’s underground space, he felt guilty about taking away its shine like that, but he kept it, nonetheless, he worked, drank tea, slept for what felt like centuries, and quietly dismissed everything happening around him, it was a boring filler scene.

_“Human life is but a series of footnotes to a vast obscure unfinished masterpiece”_ In which book had he read that quote, he couldn't remember.

He was laying, tummy up on his bed, staring at the white ceiling, making images out of the bumps and discolors on the cement, that surely were there for nobody, but himself.

Eyes dead on the sky.

“Ray!” Olson kicked his door open.

“You can knock, you know” How come he wasn't even surprised, anymore.

“Bake us a cake! Please!” Olson put his hands together like he was praying “Please! Ray!”

“Sure” Garraty yawned, it was too early for this, even if time didn't exist “But why?”

“Because we want to have a picnic, Ray!”

“Because?”

“Because!”

“Unbeatable arguments” Garraty got off his bed, well time to bake a carrot cake for his favorite Hare.

“Make sure you don't burn it!” Olson grabbed his arm, and dragged him out of the room, and into the hallways.

“I never burn anything!” If he had prepared perfect macaroons, he could prepare anything.

“Make sure you don't start!”

“Aye, Aye, Captain!”

* * *

Garraty got all that he needed onto the cupboard, he had gotten used to where everything in the house was, or everything on the house had gotten used to how he was, jury was still out on that one, but it was workable, regardless.

McVries and Olson were sitting outside, on that same table he had first gotten tested at, chit-chatting about something, Garraty found it very nice, those moments when they weren't totally yelling at each other, were the best for him.

_I suppose I should make something besides carrot cake, to make it more bearable on us, non-rabbit people._ Garraty thought, and got to work.

* * *

He gazed down with satisfaction at his little treats, this was one of the few things he really liked putting his work into.

“Here is your picnic” Garraty announced to them, carrying the food trays to the table.

“What did you make?” McVries asked amiably.

“Carrot cake for him, apple pie for me, and Roasted Grape Crostini for you” He was a little proud of it, he felt like he was showing something off.

“It looks so good!” Olson immediately grabbed his, Garraty was glad he liked it, and wasn't digging his fingers into other people’s food, as he usually did “You are so good at this, Ray.”

“Awww” He was really, very, flustered “Thank you.”

“I would compliment you too, but you already know what I think” McVries said.

“I hope you like yours, doing things with grapes is a little new to me.”

“How do you know he likes grapes so much?” Olson said, taking his eyes off his cake for a second.

“I didn't really know, but it's also the macaroon flavor he liked the most” Garraty said.

“If we are done elaborating on my love for purple things” McVries said “Let's go outside, and actually have a picnic.” 

McVries reached out for something beneath the table, like he was performing a magic trick, and out came a pretty small and concise looking sewn picnic basket, him, and Garraty rapidly put everything inside.

“Hell yeah” Olson stood up and ran outside, McVries and Garraty calmly followed.

“Everything you cook tastes so good” McVries said after sneaking one of the crostinis out of the basket, and taking a slow loving bite out of it.

“Not really, but thank you a lot” He was blushing for sure.

They kept going until McVries stopped them, at a nice little spot, on the mansion's grand garden, and settled down.

“I'm gonna go get the rest” Olson told him, Garraty nodded, he didn't realize he was smiling, he felt at peace in moments like this one, he felt like the world was just fine.

Garraty finally sat down, leaning against a tree, both legs extended before him, and rested, at least everybody had liked the food, and was relatively at peace.

“Ray” Garraty slammed his head against the tree.

“You really need to stop doing that, Stebbins” Garraty rubbed his head lightly, Stebbins smiled at him, with that derisive wide smile of his, what really got Garraty about it was that it met Stebbins’s eyes entirely, Stebbins was oddly honest, sometimes.

“What did I do? I didn't slam your head against a tree, you did.”

“Yeah, sure, what do you want?”

“The Ball.”

“The Ball?”

“Already forgot? Though I suppose I shouldn't be surprised, we all know you are a second class intellect at best.”

“Second class intellect!?”

“And third class hearing as it seems.”

“Do you want me to hit you?”

“Don't flatter yourself, Ray, you know you couldn't.”

“I will-!”

“Stebbins, quit it” Garraty turned to find McVries sitting beside them, with a tired, irritated look in his eyes, he was smiling, but more often than not, the smile didn't meet his eyes.

“Did I offend you, and your boyfriend, Hatter?” Stebbins's ears twitched cutely, it made Garraty want to punch him harder.

“A lot” McVries said, and laced his arm around Garraty’s waist.

“Pete!”

“What? It’s the truth” McVries gave him wide, incredulous eyes, and an offended expression, Garraty felt his entire face go red.

“You both make me want to vomit” Stebbins sounded dead.

“Now, you know, how we all feel, whenever you come to visit our freelancer resident Cheshire Cat, my dear, bunny boy.” 

“Do you want to die?”

“You are doubting that?”

“Pete!”

“Sorry, sorry.”

“Whatever” Stebbins rolled his eyes, done, and exasperated “Get up, and walk there.”

“Wait” Garraty turned back to Stebbins “The Ball is right now?”

“Of course it's right now” Stebbins said, his mouth on a ‘Shouldn't that be obvious?’ Grimace “Why else would I be here?”

“To tell us in anticipation? Like normal people do?”

“Didn't I tell you? The invitation comes when you least expect it.”

“Like anybody here is normal, Ray” McVries said “Besides, wasn't that expecting too much out of the rabbit who can't read a clock, and has never once been on time for anything, not even our tea parties, to tell us something in anticipation?”

Garraty thought about something he could say against that, there was absolutely nothing “You are right.”

“Hey!”

“Should we take something like last time?” Garraty asked.

“Take the pie, Her Majesty The Red Queen loves pie” Stebbins said, pointing at the full, and fresh pie sitting in front of Garraty, he sounded like he was remembering a pleasant memory.

“My pie?”

“What other? Why are you staring at me that way?” Stebbins said, getting up “Walk.”

“Are you going to take us there?” Garraty asked, he picked up the pie, he put it back in the picnic basket, Stebbins tapped twice on the floor with his left foot, and a rabbit hole appeared beneath them 

“Slow to the punch as per usual, Ray.”

“AAAAAAAA!!!!!”

Garraty opened up his eyes, the tunnel seemed to be the same as before, but completely opposite, he felt like he was falling in reverse, seeing photo negatives of himself.

The picnic basket was floating somewhere above them.

“You are not going to die today, Ray” McVries said, softly, and calmly, like they were falling back into the sea, and that was fine, because that's where they had all first come from “It's going to be okay.”

They were falling at eye level, McVries didn't look like any stranger he had ever met before, Garraty knew he didn't know him when they were children, he didn't understand why it felt like it.

“Okay” He answered, for the both of them “Okay.”

And they kept falling, until they weren't falling anymore.

* * *

“We aren't falling. You can open your eyes, Ray.”

Garraty slowly did so, falling was the one thing he could never get used to, falling was the one thing he was always doing.

Stebbins was already waiting for them on the other side, looking, and being deadly bored, of course.

The basket had somehow come back to Garraty’s hands.

“Isn't Olson, and the rest, going to come as well?”

“You doubted me, Ray? Me?” Olson was coming out of his own rabbit hole, with Mike, Joe, and Percy “Before you ask, I bought myself and co over, because this bitter good for nothing prime minister, won't do it” Olson poked his tongue out at Stebbins.

“Because I'm not paid to” Olson poked his tongue out harder. 

“You can make those rabbit holes things, too, Olson?” Garraty asked.

“I know, I was surprised too, he's not completely useless” McVries said.

“I'm not useless!” Olson turned to Garraty with a shining, proud, smile “I'm a Hare you know, I can make something like this for myself!”

“Good, you have the basic abilities you should be born with, we are all amazed” Said Stebbins “Now walk.”

“I'm not gonna walk with you” Olson said.

“What are you going to do, Olson?” Garraty said, because Stebbins looked five seconds away from snapping.

“I'm going to sneak into the castle by myself, and steal all of The Queen’s tea leaves!”

“Good, if I come back and find any tea leaf remaining, I will execute you myself.”

“There won't be any!” Olson slammed his right foot against the ground, and a smaller rabbit hole appeared “And you can't cut off my head!”

“Oi, Idiot Hare!” Stebbins reached inside the rabbit hole, and pulled Olson out by his ears, Garraty took note that Olson’s ers were bigger than Stebbins’s “Take the rest off the background characters with you! You brought them you take them!” Stebbins pointed at the asleep Percy, and Mike and Joe.

Olson got free from Stebbins’s hold, ran towards them, and jumped inside “We are not background characters!”

Stebbins sighed audibly “And you too” He walked up to Garraty, yanked the basket from his hand, and tossed it down the rabbit hole.

“Will it be okay?”

“Don't underestimate me, Ray.”

Garraty didn't “You look like a corpse, Stebbins” Garraty said.

“I hate your friends.”

“The feeling is mutual” McVries reassured him.

“Walk.” 

* * *

Stebbins led them to the same, or what looked like the same path, or a completely different path, Garraty couldn't tell at all, for what felt like an eternity, until he wasn't, anymore. 

Garraty didn't know where he was anymore, he searched around, he was alone in the maze. He had been right next to the others, walking, and talking, a couple of seconds ago, but when he turned to look, there was nobody there, like a boyscout who suddenly had gotten himself lost in the forest.

“Make sure you don't get lost” He could still hear McVries's voice in his head.

Garraty looked around himself, he didn't see anybody, or anywhere he knew, had he really gotten lost on a decorative visit led maze? He sighed, and kept walking around.

“Painting the roses red!” He heard a deadly howl, really nearby. Garraty had been following everything so far, so why not this too? He went after the voice, putting the edges of his palm on the green bushes, trailing them around. 

“I'm not surprised.” 

“Art?” Garraty entered the new section of the maze, inside it was Baker lazily leaning against the bush wall, with one hand on his hip, near him, some guy he didn't know, and Scramm and Harkness on card soldier uniforms, painting white roses red “What are you doing?”

“Hi, Ray” Baker waved at him, with a pleasant smile “I'm doing nothing, these three are card soldiers, and they are paintin’ white roses red.”

“Alright” Garraty nodded “But why?”

“Because they are white.”

“Alright, but why?”

“Explain to your invitee that you are stupid” Baker told the other three.

“Hey, Ray” Harkness said “We are painting them because otherwise, His Majesty would...” He made a noise as he made a straight line in the air in front of his neck “...You know.”

“The Queen would use our blood to paint them instead” The guy he didn't know spoke up “Am Davidson, by the way”

“Got it” So they were stupid “But I thought you hated cats the most, Harkness” Garraty said, because Harkness didn't really look uncomfortable at all next to Baker.

“Cheshire Cats are the exception” Harkness said, sounding very portentous.

“Thanks~~~” Baker said, a playful, but cute smile on his face.

“Are you going to tell me why this time?” Garraty asked.

“I said ‘Maybe one day’ but that day isn't today.”

Garraty stopped himself from pouting too hard, he still wanted to know, instead, he changed the subject “Didn't know you guys were soldiers here either” Garraty said, trying not to stare at Baker too much.

“A guy got to have more than one job in this economy, gotta support my family” Scramm said, his eyes unfocusing between the half painted rose in front of him, and Garraty.

“Family?”

“Yeah, Scramm’s got a wife and a son” Baker said.

“She's a peach.”

Garraty didn't know how to feel about it, but he wasn't going to say anything bad on it “Nice” He turned back to Baker “Are you going to the ball too?”

He chuckled a little “Not really, I'm here to visit a friend.”

“Why not?”

“Let's leave it at: I rather not” Baker smiled forcefully, his lips moving in a sole stiff motion, he licked one of his fangs “The Queen is not really a saint of my devotion.”

Garraty decided not to push it, when Baker got like this, he almost seemed scarily predatorial “I see” He walked up to Harkness “Do you need extra help?”

“Please” He looked like he was about to cry behind his glasses.

“I help you!” Harkness passed Garraty a thick brown brush, and he began painting too, there was a certain curious feeling about grazing rose petals with paint, for him this was that sort of thing that didn't really feel like anything else. 

* * *

“Here you are!”

“How did you manage to get lost?” Stebbins said, McVries ran to him, Stebbins stood around giving them the side eye “Really, how?”

“Don't scold him, Bunny” McVries booped Garraty’s nose “It's not his fault, your boss has to the worst interior design sense on the galaxy.”

“He's not my boss, and don't call me Bunny” Stebbins reached for his hand clock inside his coat, he glared at it, with his other arm crossed around his chest, and his right foot tapping rapidly on the floor.

“Don't sulk, Stebbins” Baker said.

“I'm not sulking, Art!”

“He's sulking” McVries said, Garraty was busy trying to get McVries’s hands off his face.

“Don't worry, Stebbins” Baker shot him, a nice, way too refreshing, smile.

“That I'm not sulking, Art!”

Garraty finally managed to get McVries’s fingers away “Is Stebbins the friend you came to visit, Art?”

“Awww, you came to visit him, even though you hate everything that surrounds him! How romantic!” McVries laughed.

“Shut up, McVries!” Stebbins turned to Garraty “Yes, I invited him, so what?”

“Nothing, I think it’s cute.”

“Shut up” Stebbins looked ready to hit him “Let's get going already, or I might simply cut off your heads myself.”

“He dates Art, because you can't cut off the head of something with no body.”

“McVries!”

“But he's right” Baker said.

“You are not a thing, Art” Stebbins said.

“Didn't you say if we were any later you would cut off our heads?” McVries asked, making the air-line, and poking out his tongue.

Stebbins sighed “Go.”

“Stop teasing him, and let's get going, Pete” Garraty said, looking at them interacting was always a strange, and badly written experience, for sure.

“As your order, Missus.” 

“Quiet you” Garraty hit him softly on the arm.

“I said, go.” 

“Going” Garraty answered, and they began following again.

* * *

The Castle of Hearts was grand, vast, and way too over the top.

Stebbins gave them no time to look at the outside structure, and the inside was filled with hearts decorations to the brim, to the point it only looked cluttered, and nonsensical, a bunch of maids and soldiers bowed down to them, and greeted them, Stebbins and the rest ignored them for the most part, but Garraty did his best to greet back as they passed.

Two soldiers opened up the big, red wood, gates for Stebbins, and inside was the Ballroom, a full, colossal room, with far more than the needed space, and windows that expanded from the floor to the ceiling, sitting far above them was Barkovitch on his throne.

“And, this is where my paid invitee tour service ends” Stebbins said.

“Thank you” Garraty said.

“You are welcome” He stretched, he already looked too tired, he went towards where Barkovitch was. 

“I pity him already” Baker said, shaking his head softly, his eyes were stuck on Stebbins the whole time.

“I think we all do, Art” Garraty said, but leaving that behind “Are we going to get changed?” looking around everybody was either dressed in regal work clothes like Stebbins and Barkovitch, or actual ball gowns and suits, except for them.

“Do you really care about that stuff?” McVries said, looking amusedly at him.

“I feel out of place, that's all” Garraty suddenly felt embarrassed of saying that out loud, he put his hand behind his neck.

“Your wishes are my command” McVries said and clapped twice, a bang noise, and a blinding light engulfed them for a moment.

Garraty winced, and held his eyes tightly closed.

You can open them up, now“ McVries said, Garraty did so slowly, he looked down at himself and gasped, a proper suit, he was suddenly wearing a proper suit, he looked at McVries, he was wearing one too.

“You look really nice” McVries told him, as he adjusted the buttons on his shirt’s sleeve “And you too, Art” McVries clicked his tongue at Baker, Baker clicked it right back.

“Thank you, Mad Hatter” Baker said.

“I'm sorry, isn't this too much? I was only asking, you didn't have to go out of your way for me” Garraty was feeling a little guilty, the clothes looked really fancy, he felt sort of like a rip-off wearing something he didn't deserve.

“That's how McVries is” Baker said, he didn't look bad by any means on those deluxe clothes, they suited him well, but they really crashed with Garraty’s image of him “When he likes somebody, he wants to show off, no need to feel bad about it.”

“Likes!?” He was really, really embarrassed.

“Only a little though, not that big of a deal, being honest, maybe if you were a little taller” McVries said.

“Pete!”

“What!?”

Garraty was about to reprimand him a little more, before the trumpets sounded and interrupted him, they turned to Stebbins, all of the invitees looked up at him, and Barkovitch, Stebbins passed the trumpet to one of the cards, and spoke up “Quiet down” The whole room went silent.

Barkovitch stood up, he looked down with resentment at all of them, he appeared to be seconds away from bursting like a volcano.

Barkovitch opened up his mouth slowly “There's so many of you, here” His voice sounded far away and gone, like he was seeing something completely different than what they were living “A lot of you weren't invited” Baker snickered at that “But We say that doesn't matter! Enjoy the Ball like it was the last night of your lives, because it could be!” Barkovitch finished off screaming, and sat back down. Baker disappeared right after that.

“Night?” Garraty looked through the windows, it was still daytime.

“Keep looking” McVries leaned down and nodded towards Barkovitch, Garraty refocused his eyes, he caught Barkovitch clapping twice, that same bang noise on a different note, and the night filling in the room.

“Wow” Garraty looked at the night sky reflecting itself all over the grandiose Ballroom “It's beautiful, don't you think, Pete?”

“Not the most beautiful thing I have seen tonight” McVries spoke, looking at him.

“Me too” Garraty said, smiling, ever so shily.

“Dance!” Barkovitch yelled, immediately after all of those faceless people from the mob conformed by the rest of the guests took each other's hands and began dancing. 

Underneath the night sky they all looked ethereal, like stars, people dancing could be like stars too, smiling and living, it was all a way of being a star, whatever you were made of inside, existed forever, shining somewhere off at space, somewhere off here, somewhere off on somebody else.

They simply danced.

Garraty stood admiring the ball, because this was the ball, not the maze, and presentations, or painting roses minutes before it was off with your head, it was the people dancing underneath the golden hour, or whatever the golden hour of his dreams was.

He observed the women and the men holding each other close dancing to music, that was probably awful to anybody who wasn't included in this ball this evening, it wasn't awful to him at all, was it awful to McVries, he stared as they danced, he stared as if he had already understood he could never be one of them.

One could almost weep out loud.

“Do you want to dance?” McVries said, leaning down a little, the air of his words tickling Garraty’s ear, Garraty had grown so accustomed to this now, he didn't even flinch away anymore, he never minded it, but before it had seemed so dangerous, he felt silly to admit, that it was easier to step away than to afront oneself. 

Garraty couldn't smile, he wasn't good at smiling through the pain, he wasn't good at feeling other things besides pain, and his heart physically breaking whenever he read the last line of a book.

“I do” He grabbed McVries’s arm, it was as honest as he could be right now, and that was okay by McVries.

McVries placed his hand tenderly, and wholeheartedly on top of Garraty’s. 

They walked to the dancing floor.

“Do you know how to dance?”

“I got taught when I was child” The sort of thing one never forgets, like riding a bicycle, falling in love, or feeling shame.

“Good, because I don't” And of course if there was one thing Peter McVries didn't know was that, one could almost weep out loud out of joy.

“You do it like this” Garraty took McVries’s hand and placed it on his shoulder, took his own and interlaced it with his, McVries’s hands were trails full of veins, it reminded him of a snake he would be willing to be poisoned by, he could feel the little bone at the start of the wrist popping out, he had known its name once, not anymore “And like this” He stepped forward, they were dancing to the music now too.

“Like this?” McVries held tighter, closer, breathing and alive, and took another step.

Garraty clutched to him “More like this” And another step “Let me keep showing you” Step “Like this” Step “Like this” Steps “Like this.” 

“Thank you” McVries whispered to him before the moment was broken.

* * *

“Where's my pie!?” Barkovitch yelled from up his throne.

“Oh no” Stebbins sighed, he was standing next to the food table, he stopped besides Garraty for a second “He's going to blame you, you idiot.”

“Wait, Stebbins” Garraty called behind him, his mouth agape, and confused.

“You know what I'm off to do” Stebbins spoke without turning back to him, he ran away and out of Garraty’s sight.

“But why me?” He turned to McVries, the only person he felt he could trust the answer to.

“Because you are the outsider, but don't worry, Ray, nobody here actually gets executed” McVries said, he looked serious this time, without that sardonic smirk he always had “They are all humoring The Big Bad Red Queen, but nothing bad is actually going to happen to you, alright, please trust me.”

“Are you sure?”

“I bet my hat on it.” 

Garraty bit the inner part of his cheek, until it bled, he unpursed his lips “Alright” Garraty nodded, Garraty decided to trust him, he had already trusted him with so much, he would follow him with his eyes blindfolded, even if something inside himself still told him he shouldn't.

“Who ate my pie!?” Barkovitch kept yelling from up his throne “Who!?” A scared card came up to him, his legs were trembling slightly, he bowed down and whispered something to Barkovitch, with both hands cupped, and covering his mouth from view, the card pointed down to him.

Garraty gulped down, his hands were beginning to get sweaty, McVries grabbed it and caressed his knuckles, he said gently, his voice husky and deep “Don't worry, Ray, nobody here actually gets executed.”

“You!” Barkovitch ran off his throne and towards them, Garraty gripped McVries’s hand tighter, he was marveled how McVries didn't mind holding him like that “You!” Barkovitch stood in front of them, his finger held high, and pointing straight at Garraty’s neck, he looked like a fierce animal “Off with his head!”

“Why would I eat my own pie?”

“Off!” Barkovitch ignored him, he turned to yell at the soldiers “Off! Off! With his head!”

Davidson and Scramm approached him, they had those regretful grimaces on their face, like right before you have to get a vaccine at school, they aborded him with their palms showing, as if he was the wild animal, as if he wasn't the supposed criminal here.

“Wait but-”

“Out of my presence! Out with your head!” 

“We are sorry, Ray” Scramm said, grabbed both of his arms and dragged him away, Garraty allowed himself to be taken away, until he could no longer see the ball.

“Let go of him now, we are not actually going to execute him” Davidson told Scramm.

“Sorry” Scramm immediately took his hands off him, Garraty lost balance a little.

“Where are you taking me?” He felt way calmer now.

“To prison” Davidson said, he looked awkwardly to the other side.

“You guys actually have prisons, I thought you executed people on the spot.”

“When the guillotine is nearby” Davison said, he had that far away look people got when they remembered something tiresome.

“I don't know if that's better, or worse.”

“I think, better, because Stebbins went out of his way to convince His Majesty not to have it around” Scramm said, he always looked like he was thinking really hard about stuff, Garraty wished people as a general thought really hard, about more things.

“He did?” Garraty asked.

“Yes, he was very adamant about it, as well” Davidson said “Now, close your eyes, you can't see where the prison is, there's no descriptions for it.”

Garraty sighed, he closed his eyes, they grabbed his arms again, and walked him somewhere, it felt like forever, it felt like the bad kind of forever, the floor was unsteady, like it was disappearing beneath him, as if he was falling through the rabbit hole again, he felt rocks sticking to his soles.

“Here we are” Scramm said “You can open your eyes.”

Garraty opened them all at once, he felt like he was looking underneath his bed for a monster.

“Wait here” Garraty looked at the rock-made antique cage, it had nothing in special, all bars “Until, The Queen calms down” Davidson said, Scramm walked up to the bars, and opened them apart, with his bare hands, Garraty didn't have the will to say anything about that.

“Okay” Garraty walked drowsily inside, Davidson and Scramm apologetically nodded him goodbye. 

Garraty sat down “We meet again” And flinched very hard after that, how many more times was that gag going to repeat itself.

Garraty turned to look at them, Abraham, and Parker were sitting on the other end of the cell “I didn't see you.”

“Yeah, that's what jail is for” Abraham.

“What it does to everybody inside” Parker spit on the ground after saying that “Why you here?”

“I am going to be executed, apparently” Saying that out loud felt really strange, he shrugged, Parker and Abraham laughed at that “What's so funny?” Though, he supposed he already knew.

“Yeah, sure, nobody actually gets executed here” Abraham said, still chuckling.

“So, we are all only humoring Barkovitch here?”

“Yup” Parker said, drumming the rock floor with three fingers “One day, Imma rip off his nose.”

“Don't” Abraham said “If you do, Stebbins will take over the country, and then he will actually execute us.”

Parker hit the ground “Goddamn, you are right.”

“Why him?”

“He's the Prime Minister, right now if he wanted to, he could kill Barkovitch, and take over the country already, he's just too lazy” Abraham said.

“Wait, for real?”

“You didn't know.”

“Pete told me, but I didn't think he was for real, I thought it was a joke.”

“Pete as in Peter McVries The Mad Hatter?” Abraham asked him, making the silhouette of a hat on his head with his index finger.

“Yes?” Garraty said unsure, leaning forward “I'm staying with him?”

“But, you do know what _he_ does, right?” Parker asked.

“Not a lot?” Garraty was feeling more and more unsure.

“I'm going to tell him” Parker stood up.

“No, you are not” Abraham grabbed his leg, and slammed him right back down.

“He needs to know, Abe.”

“No, he doesn't, Collie.”

“What do I need to know?”

“No, you don't, Ray.”

“Tell me! I need to know” Garraty got himself closer to them, his eyes wide, he had a nervous smile on.

“Nobody is telling anything to anybody” Abraham clapped once “We are all going to stay here, and wait out.”

“You are an idiot, Abe.”

“And you love me” Abraham poked Parker on the ribs.

“Don't make me break your nose, Abe!”

"Like you would."

* * *

“And that's why they call me The Mock Turtle, and why lessons, are called lessons.”

“Damm straight” Parker said, he somehow, looked actually interested in whatever Abraham was saying, Garraty was about to fall asleep, when the sounds of way too near, and way too loud trumpets, woke him up.

“Raymond Davis Garraty!” It was Stebbins’s voice.

Parker laughed “Davis.”

“Present yourself!”

“Going!” Garraty stood up, he rubbed his eyes, and went to the bars “What? Are you going to throw me to the wolves? How do you even know my full name?”

“I'm Stebbins, I know everything” He said, lowering the trumpet.

“Do you know what McVries does?”

“You don't?”

“I been here five days!”

“It's been five years, Ray Garraty!” 

“Uh?”

“Aren't you two, too calm for people who are supposedly going to an execution?” Parker yelled at them, from inside the cage.

Stebbins rolled his eyes as he opened the cage’s door, the cage didn't have that door before, the moment Garraty stepped out, it disappeared, and the whole prison with it.

He was standing on the same field he had first walked on, it wasn't in his old house.

“Don't pay attention to it, it's not worth it.”

“I never do” Garraty said, smiling bitterly.

“Of course, you don't” Stebbins said “Now you have a choice left to make” He held his two hands up, closed, and showing the white, always bruised skin of his knuckles “You can either go to your trial where nothing physically important will happen, where we cannot affect you in a way that will matter, except if you want it to, or you can run away.”

“It’s this part of the dream already” Garraty spoke without thinking again.

Stebbins smiled knowingly “So which ending will you choose?”

Garraty stared at Stebbins’s eyes, as if he was waiting to be told something new, his pale skin was as unreal as everything else here, he could simply choose to ignore it, the very same way he had chosen to ignore everything else until this point, and lead a regular fun life.

“This was sudden” He said.

“Everything here is” Stebbins brushed his bangs away from his eyes “Everything for you, and I it is.”

“Yeah” Garraty reached for them, he petted them back down “It is.”

“Meaningless” Stebbins said, he was looking through him now.

“You think so, too?” Stebbins didn't nod, or show any expression “You already know what I am going to choose, don't you?” 

“But I still need to ask, each and every time.”

“When will you stop?”

“When will _you_ stop?”

“Never.”

“Exactly.”

Garraty stepped away from Stebbins “Thank you.”

“It´s a personal pleasure” Stebbins tilted his head, Garraty could almost kid himself into thinking he was smiling, Garraty smiled back.

* * *

Garraty turned his back on Stebbins, and walked, he already knew where he was going, the forest was vast, endless, and Garraty walked it without a second thought, like he had done when he was a child. 

He laughed a little as the golden gates came into view, he ran back to McVries, didn't even see the red roses on his way back.

**Author's Note:**

> Anybody: Mentions Alice In Wonderland  
> Me shaking at the speed of sound: Yes I love Alice In Wonderland a normal amount


End file.
